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 Post Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:09 pm 
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Probably not as interesting as the title might suggest. Sorry.

I work in an architectural firm. Of the five people in the firm, I am the only one who does not attend the same church. Or any church for that matter. The five people consist of the owner, his wife and the three of us who hold various drafting/architectural qualifications.

We have, over the years, designed various buildings affiliated with different religious groups. One particular project is a Taoist Temple. This has been an ongoing project for about ten years now. All three of we employees have worked on the project. We each have strong and weak skills and support each other. At least we did up until this week.

My two fellow employees have, under the advice of their religious leaders, refused to work on the project. I now feel a lack of support in my role and my workload has increased, including tasks I am very unfamiliar with. My dissatisfaction with this company has never been low and I have a second job which I greatly prefer as well as other prospects on the horizon. I now find myself wanting to leave this position but also feel that it would be unconscionable to leave, knowing that no one would take over the project if I did. The business is slow at the moment and my employer shouldn't take on additional staff. Not to mention the time it would take to train them if he did.

I'm not so much looking for advice as I feel that my situation holds some interesting topics.

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 Post Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:24 am 
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Guessing by you saying they attend the same church, is your employer enabling this unprofessional behavior from your co-workers? I wouldn't hold much sympathy for the firm being in a tight spot if I was in your position and walked out. Few things annoy me more in a work setting than others intentionally doing things that make my job harder. Only you can decide when enough is enough, though.

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 Post Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:20 am 
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As a non christian myself, I feel that I don't really have a right to say this but I'm going to say it anyway: First, they knew what they were getting into when they took the job. Second, its a job. If they like getting paid, they can't afford to be picky about things like this. And third, it seems mighty unchristian of them to leave a coworker in the lurch like that, regardless of what their religious leaders say.

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 Post Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:29 am 
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So you're saying that after working on this project for I don't know how long, possibly years, they've recently decided that it would violate their religious beliefs to work on it any further? Well alrighty then. Weird. In principle, they knew that a major part of their job involved designing a Taoist temple to begin with, and if they are no longer OK with it, they need to find new jobs, not undermine their employer.

From a management perspective, the owner either needs to address the insubordination of his employees, hire another person, or drop the project altogether. If the owner decides that the project is no longer compatible with his employees' religious beliefs, fine. Tell the client to find someone else and forego the income. But he shouldn't allow the work to be pushed on to one overtaxed employee who will end up producing subpar work through no fault of his own. That's just bad business practice.

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 Post Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:33 pm 
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As a Christian, I would say that your company is handling this wrong. If they have agreed to do business then they need to follow through or they need to go to the people that contracted them and end contract if it is determined to be a conflict of interest, even if it is based on religious belief.

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 Post Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 11:59 pm 
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Not cool. Your coworkers are letting down you, the business you're working for, and the customers that asked the business to build their temple. If they were working for me I'd probably have fired them, religious reasons be damned. By cutting and running, they've let down people that had been depending on them. You just don't do that if you're any sort of decent person.

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 Post Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 1:01 am 
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What exactly is their objection to this project? Do they believe they're supposed to shun people from other religions? Or is it that they're accepting their money? Or something else? And why wasn't the objection raised earlier?

I remember when a Baptist congregation was building a church in our town, and they were having trouble because they were running short on funds. Our Mormon congregation went over and helped them put on their roof for free. Other than having to exchange disclaimers (they aren't responsible if we hurt ourselves, we aren't responsible if they don't like the results of our free labor), there was very little fuss over it and it was all pretty friendly. Given that experience, I guess I just don't get the mindset your co-workers are operating under.

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 Post Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 1:27 am 
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You know what? Neither do I. Especially as my understanding of Taoism is that it is more a philosophy than a religion and neither relies upon nor denies supreme intervention.

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 Post Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 2:08 am 
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Um, yes and no. It's a big messy belief system with both philosophical and religious components. The philosophical part is about aligning oneself in harmony with the flow of the universe through passivity and simplicity. The religious bit includes a pantheon of deities and demons, a search for immortality through physical exercises and alchemy, and exorcism. They're all related somehow, but it's not an internally consistent theology, nor does it attempt to be.

There are definitely bits of Taoism that would make some strict Christians' hair stand on end. Idol worship! Demons! Magic! Animal offerings! But whatever is their problem with it, that doesn't excuse their unprofessional behaviour.

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