(06/07/2018) Commitment To The Brand?

The image advocates religious neutrality in the workplace

Today, reply is on ethics and the obligations of employees to their employer regarding the expression and practice of their spiritual beliefs both in and outside of the workplace.  Becoming selected and hired by a going enterprise is more than a matter of selling oneself and being paid to labor; “getting a job” means entering a relationship to obtain benefits and resources for ones life.  In modern work settings—agricultural, financial, government, industrial, medical, theatrical—every employee is required to exercise restraint, and to help maintain a positive work atmosphere free of conflicts based on age, arbitrary differences, ethnic and national origin, personal traits (e.g., hair color, height, weight), religious beliefs, and their concerns for developing their own career or business.  One of the fighters in the “Yahoo Answers” forum who uses the ID “Anonymous” (no profile data shown) posted the following in the Religion and Spirituality section:


Did you know my company made a rule outlawing religious artifacts and praying at our work?

They states we can pray after work or on a lunch break in private.The company has no right to tell my conservative brothers and sisters when and where to pray!!! First amendment!


THE GOLDEN ARROW:  Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.  (Proverbs 20:  11, King James Version, KJV)


THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  The Relationship As Servant (06/03/2018); Blessed In Our Deeds (05/29/2018); Duties of a Christian? (03/13/2018); Called To Be Servants? (11/25/2015); It Comes With the Job? (01/11/2015); Religious Bosses? (07/08/2014); On Religious Items (08/29/2012); On Cults (08/30/2012)


“Anonymous”, here are some points on belief, conscience, personal integrity, and grace that may be helpful: 

Currently, when a worker accepts a position with a firm, they are expected to acknowledge that they are also a representative of the company Brand.  In the same way you are recognized and respected as a legitimate agent and representative who embodies the firm, and provides its “human face” to the public during work hours and in the workplace, a worker’s behavior and conduct before the public in non-work settings also will influence how the firm is evaluated, respected, and supported.  The relationship between employee and employer continues when you are in the public arena on the basis of ethics, principles, purposes, and standards, and is not simply a matter of consumer products and services.  Many young workers are not aware of this, and feel strongly that, once they complete their shift at work, they can dismiss, ignore, and openly oppose all the demands and rules of their employer, and their workplace. 

The covenant (i.e., the formal, legal agreement; the verbal or written contract) between an employee and an employer should be understood as projecting beyond the specifics of their job description, their to-do list, or a flow chart displaying their daily duties.  A workplace is a social setting having all the same needs for fiscal soundness, health care, hygiene, nourishment, law enforcement, and crisis management as those of a small town.  A workplace can include those from diverse backgrounds, marital status, multiple knowledge and skill sets as well as those having different levels of job experience, personal ambition, commitment to the company mission statement, and devotion to  the discipline/field, to say nothing of differences among its workers for their levels of emotional, psychological, and spiritual maturity.

Both employers and their workers also are expected to acknowledge a set of unspoken assumptions and conditions (we say, adopt a common-sense understanding; accept as binding points that are logically consistent and interdependent with those of their formal agreement).  Thus, knowing there is a company issued uniform, unless it is an aspect of his job, a new employee will not appear on his first day of work wearing logos of the competitor, and expect to continue in the workplace without challenge, comments that may be negative, and conflict.  A commitment to address and satisfy one another’s needs must come into view, and must develop over time establishing such features as continuity, flow, mutual accountability, shared identity, respect, job satisfaction, and trust.  Consider again the following that uses language from the Bible:

(1.)  Romans 6:  16, King James Version (KJV):  16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

(2.)  Romans 6:  8-14, KJV:  8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:  9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once:  but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:  but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.  14 For sin shall not have dominion over you:  for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

(3.)  2nd Corinthians 4:  17-18, KJV:  17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:  for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

There is far more that should be said, correctly examined, and spiritually apprehended.  (For example, (4.)  Romans 8:  5-9, KJV:  5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:  for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.  9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC