Work: Is prayerful boss acting in good faith?

Expressing your faith at work is generally protected, but pushing others to express the same - or suppress their own - may cross the legal line. Photo / Getty, Uniquely India

Karla L. Miller writes an advice column on navigating the modern workplace.

Q: I work for a large nonprofit - tax-exempt, but not faith-based. Our new supervisor is a conservative Christian who formerly worked for a faith-based organisation and is open in the workplace about his beliefs.

At his first staff meeting, he asked us to go around the table and declare our value system. He led with: God, country, family, work. In his office, he keeps a Bible on his desk and frequently rests his hand on it when asked to make a decision.

Some staff have reported interrupting him praying in his office during work hours. In the middle of the day, he streams a right-wing conservative radio show. If you are scheduled to meet with him at that time, you cannot avoid listening to it.

Many of us are uncomfortable. Are his actions permissible?

A: Are you sure he's praying? When I'm bent over my keyboard muttering sacred names, it means something quite different.

I asked Jonathan Segal, an employment attorney with Duane Morris and self-described "Jewish guy who wears a chai," to enlighten me on the intersection of divine law and labour law. "I don't think you can - or should - keep faith entirely out of the workplace," Segal says. "Where people get into trouble is when they proselytise."

Expressing your faith through words, deeds and garb is generally protected, but pushing others to express the same - or suppress their own - may cross the legal line. Also, an employer must be equally respectful of all sincerely held beliefs - as well as non-belief.

Your boss's behaviour to date doesn't seem to rise to the hostile work environment level, even if it skews politically to the right of your comfort zone. But as the boss, he should be mindful of appearances.

For example, touching his Bible might simply help him focus - but, Segal points out, that gesture could be interpreted as a "link between faith and decision-making" and possibly cited as evidence of religious bias if the decision has an adverse effect on someone who doesn't share the boss's beliefs. And if the boss starts insisting everyone join hands and bow heads before a meeting, or if your annual performance review feels more like a religious inquisition, hie thee to HR.

But you can seek another path that avoids holy ground altogether: "I want to be sure I'm giving you my full attention. Would it be possible to mute the webcast, or reschedule our meeting?"

Or perhaps he could walk in one day and find his Bible opened and marked with a sticky note at Matthew 6:5 ("And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.").

Miller has written for and edited tax publications for 16 years, most recently for the accounting firm KPMG's Washington National Tax office.