Being an 'out' Atheist at work.
I know I'm skipping a few years of my 'coming out' story but we can go back and forth in the timeline. I've seen a lot of topics on how people came out, how their parents reacted, school, losing friends, so on and so forth. So I'm going to go the work route. Though I must point out my story kind of affects the family aspect since my Aunt is one of my bosses.
I work at a Dunkin Donuts. I'm a baker. I work third shift baking hundreds of muffins, croissants, and bagels for five stores in our district. It is hard, sweaty work. And no, I don't make the donuts.
My situation my be unique. See I'm as my aunt calls 'eccentric'. I have a couple mental issues and have a very very very outgoing personality. I am brutally honest, and tend to overshare. I'm also missing whatever part of the brain most of the rest of the world has that allows you to censor yourself, so I tend to say 'offensive' things on a daily basis anyway, even if it has nothing to do with religion. Because of all these personality traits, I think my coworkers tend to look past my Atheism, just adding it to the pile of other oddities about me.
I have also found that since I am so open and honest, people tend to trust me more, and faster, than others. I know something about every single coworker that most of the other coworkers don't even if they've been working together for years. I think this makes it easier for what ever religious discussions/debates that may come up to go fairly smoothly.
This also makes it easier to teach people things they might not otherwise know...
I once had a discussion about Atheist discrimination with a now ex coworker who was Christian. He had never heard of it before and wasn't sure he believed me. He wasn't hateful toward Atheists and couldn't understand why anyone else would be. One Sunday morning, a regular came through who happened to run a church nearby. My coworker decided to test the Atheist discrimination I had mentioned.
The costumer commented that it was too bad my coworker had to work and couldn't make it to church and said he would pray for him. He then asked about me and said he'd like to pray for me too. My coworker replied that I was an Atheist. The costumer's eyes went wide, almost fearful and said, "Well then I'll have to pray double for her!" and drove off.
My coworker imediatly came out back telling me the story and was very upset. He ended it by saying he was offended that I got double prayers when he actually believed in god.
Sorry this is kind of long. I'm interested in hearing other peoples work experience, if their out at the workplace, any stories like mine, etc...
Tags: Atheism, Atheist, coworker, donut, out, work
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by MikeTheInfidel on -
I work as a technical writer in an engineering/research lab in upstate New York. The most religious folks I know are my fellow technical writers, and they're pretty liberal about it. I don't usually face any discrimination at work; maybe just the occasional good-natured joke (e.g., asking "what did you get for I-Don't-Believe-In-Jesus Day" when I got back after Christmas). We all respect each other. Considering stories like yours and the nightmares I've read about, I feel phenomenally lucky.
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Permalink Reply by Zombie Atheist on -
Thank you for replying. :) As you might be able to tell from my latest blog, it hasn't gone away entirely haha.
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Permalink Reply by Todd Morris on -
My only workplace thing is, one day ppl were talking religion while I was working on someone's computer, and they ask what church I go to. I said I am a non believer and the person told me, "that is sad." I asked why is it sad? and they said because I dont beleive in god. I said, I think it is sad that an intelligent person like you beleives in an invisible person. We no longer speak.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon Duffy on -
No doubt they thought you were being incredibly rude, but did not think that they were being rude at all.
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Permalink Reply by Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek) on -
I am also "out" in every aspect of my life, both personally and professionally. I also am a Unitarian Universalist, so I am respectful of other people's beliefs, as long as they don't try to preach to/at me. Because of this I have found that most religious folks I know, personally and professionally, feel comfortable discussing religion with me. They like asking me questions about being an atheist - and what I think about various topics - because, quite frankly, they've never encountered an "out" atheist that wasn't militant towards believers. They also tend to be VERY surprised that a) I an an ex-xian, and b) I actually know a LOT about religious history, especially about the Abrahamic religions - and it tends to be more than their fellow believers.
So, just as many protestant religions teach their congregations to "live their faith and beliefs", I too try to "live my skepticism and rational thoughts" in a respectful, virtuous way - and hopefully change the minds and prejudices that believers have about nonbelievers.
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