Machiavelli

It happened very abruptly and I was unprepared for it. Yesterday I met with a manager of a department of an local government administration that my company provides services for. They are considering other ways of getting the service and the discussion centered around this. It is a very important topic, because the decision means jobs for my organization as we are a non-profit. This was understood by each of us, and a prior decision had already cost us one job, so we both were aware of the stakes.

During the discussion, a co-worker of mine was brought up. Then the manager said "he's a christian man isn't he?" and I said "yes, he sure is.". He then immediately said "Because ya know, it's important to me, it may be illegal, but that's just me"

I only nodded my head as an acknowledgement and didn't say a word. The conversation moved forward from there and it wasn't brought up again.

What do you think? I feel like I was sized up and that my current job rests largely on this. I feel like he was trying to illicit some sort of response that would let him know where I stood, and that since I didn't profess my faith in JC, I've put my job at risk.

Arken

IMO, if this man is a government employee who bases his hiring and firing decisions this way, you need to report him and get him fired immediately. I don't think that there is even a question as to whether or not that is an appropriate thing to ask.

simian

Don't expect the firing to be easy unless he is very blatant is the discrimination he is doing. Most bigots are now very good about not leaving a paper (or electronic) trail of their bigotry.

Which is not to say don't try it, just make sure it is something that can be proven before you make a public statement about it.

Simian

Vylo

At my workplace that guy would have his balls removed and handed to him. PC here is so strict some people try to correct you for calling someone black or white.

Machiavelli

I envy you Vylo,

Unfortunately, the context here is such that making a fuss about it would probably do more damage to me than good. I'm in the bible belt, and if I had to guess, I'd say 85% of the people I work with are Southern Baptists. So making a fuss over that would be hard to prove, it would alienate me from the rest of the christians that haven't made a fuss, and would probably end up only hurting me.

Now, as an cutthroat opportunistic businessman, I'm almost inclined to play into this. Manipulate that SOB to serve my ends and perhaps even set him up for a fall. Start having prayers with him before we meet, buy some symbols like the fish and a cross or 2. Spread around that christian email stuff. Ya know, play the part.

I kindof like this idea, but I wonder if I can pull it off.

Vylo

dont envy me PC has gone way overboard. I prefer my tech high school, where there was no PC ( go go racial slur kickball!), but there was next to no racial or ethical friction, people were very laid back and kind to each other. This is due to the large amounts of KKK and other white supremacy groups in our area. The tech school was a place to escape the race battle that was happening in our regional high school ( a very lopsided battle with such a large white population).

The excessive PC at our college has done little to stop hate crimes on campus. We have had crosses burned, swastikas painted on various areas, and Death threats through emails aimed at the black and jewish population. The PC is lirerally just there to sweep the situation under the rug. I am pleased to sawy however, that atheism is not looked down upon here.

Jewel

Vylo, you lost me. Are you saying that the lack of PC at your tech high school was due to all the white supremacy groups in the area? Or that the lack of racial tention was due to all the white supremacy groups in the area? Was your tech high scool multi cultural and multi racial?

If people are being harrassed and nothing is being done about it then I fail to see the PCness. Do you think that minorities would not be threatened any longer if the racists were allowed also to call people names and otherwise openly harrass them? I fail to see whatever it is you are trying to illustrate here.

Vylo

Because people went to the tech school to escape the race troubles from the regional high school, there was much less racial tension, people were on the same wavelength.

Forcing PC down people's throats fosters hostility, instead of being open and asking about other people's backgrounds, you were told to ignore them all togeth, an impossible task. It created tension which would explode every so often.

Getting out of work now so no posts for me for a while good day.

Calzaer

Go for it. People cling to easily manipulatable superstitions, then ask people to manipulate them by pulling crap like the above. Oblige him.

Javaman

As a joke a couple of days ago, my friend/coworker/infidel (who's leaving us for med school) handed me a copy of the "Christian Business Directory." This, as some of you may know, is a phone book of supposedly Christian businesses (hence the name ) and here is always freely available in the entrance of the local IHOP. If I had a small business, I would so lie about my beliefs just to get in that. The existance of that publication bothers me but, I suppose someone could make a "Humanist Business Directory" or some such thing... Damn the sales!