I have this new coworker at work. She's been on our team for a few weeks.

Last week she tells me that she is mormon and wants every sunday off because of her religion.

I say, "Dont you think everyone on the team wants sundays off? We share those sundays"

Anyway, the GM wound up cutting her hours a bit since her schedule needed to be shifted anyway.

A few days later she is complaining about the loss of hours.

I say, "Well you wanna work sunday for me?"

I couldn't help but be a tad snide.
But what makes someone new at a job come in demanding sundays, a typically busy day and day everyone wants off, and not expect a reduction in hours?

I guess she took that repeated sunday school lesson to heart where we were promised that if we demanded sundays off our bosses would all be moved by our devoutness and bend over back wards for us.

Oh wait, this is real life.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2015 11:23PM by nonsequiter.

Most of us who live in Utah have run into this from time to time. I had a co-worker who left work on Sunday to attend a RS lesson. She wound up being gone for 2 hours. What if I wanted to leave for two hours and go to a movie? What makes it OK because it is an LDS meeting. My daughter cut hair in Utah and one of the other stylists was frequently getting extra time off to go to girls camp etc.
I agree. It is really annoying and selfish.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2015 11:33PM by antilehinephi.

There's nothing wrong at all with *requesting* all Sundays off. You never get anything if you don't ask.

There's a lot wrong with complaining when the request is denied, though, and thinking you "deserve" what you requested more than anybody else that works there :)

+1

It's poor strategy for a "new employee" to ask for anything. Most non-Mormons in the real world will keep a low profile in the beginning in order to set a good impression. Mormons feel special entitlement. These were the points the OP were trying to make. Good try though.

I think you make a good point that even non-religious people might like Sundays off as well. What makes their reasons any less valid?

Gag. I hate when I see my uber-self-righteous TBM self through other eyes. Man I was annoying!

You can request anything you want from your employer. That does not mean you will get it.

But you will certainly not get anything if you do not ask!

It is unreasonable for an employee working for a business that is open on Sundays to expect not to work on every Sunday.

It is unreasonable for other coworkers to get upset to see a coworker get time off...when they did not ask for the same themselves.

If there is unequal treatment in the workplace. Speak up.

RMM

My thoughts, almost exactly. The coworker was a church goer when she applied, so I think she should have asked for Sundays off at least by the time SHE WAS OFFERED THE JOB - if it was REALLY important.

If she converted after becoming an employee, it would certainly be proper to ask, and just hope that it could be accommodated. But usually you need a good reason or you're going to cause bad feelings.

One lady I work with teaches Sunday school at a local church. She comes to work right afterwards. She still works her one Sunday per month, just arrives a little later. That was all worked out when she was offered the job.

That's when you get the lawyers involved in the day and age of litigation and all hell breaks loose.

Mormons tend to go out of their way to point out how they expect special treatment. Then they wonder why people snicker at their antics.

I'm in Utah and work for a company owned and run entirely by active Mormons -- yet there is work that must be done on Sundays.

So I volunteer to ALWAYS work on Sunday. The "heathen" coworkers that also are willing to work on Sundays are either ex-Mormon or less orthodox Mormon and there are never any owners or upper managers there. The big wigs are all stake presidents and such because they look comfortable in suits, give tons of money in tithing, come from pioneer stock and are used to spewing bullshit and sounding important.

So, without all the TBMs at work, Sundays have become my favorite work day of the week!

I'm a nurse and had this problem with a co-worker whose husband was the Stake President. She had to be seen at church every Sunday!

On the other hand, even as an active LDS member, I often volunteered to work Sundays, since I wanted to escape the 3 hour block :) Should have been a clue I was on my way out- but it took awhile to figure myself out.

I'd never work on sundays if I can help it because of religious reason...
I have to attend the Church of NFL, every sunday.....

Har...

;o)

When I worked retail I requested to work every Sunday. I got paid time and a half for working on Sunday. Also, the customers were more laid back and spent more money which raised my commissions. It was the best day of the week to work. I requested Mondays off, and I seldom worked on Monday. The exception was if there was a Holiday. I requested those also, for the same reasons.

Next time you hear your coworker mewling and whining about it, give her a dead-eyed stare and ask, "Why would you even apply for a job that you know fully well might require you to work on Sundays? Did you lie on your application and say you'd take any shift, any day of the week?"

This was why my TBM ex could never hold a job, since at the time, he just had his high school diploma so he could only work in retail and other jobs where one had to be available on Sundays as he was going to community college. He was fired from those jobs when he refused to work on Sundays, and as far as the college thing, he was just using the financial aid department to live on, since as soon as the check arrived, he dropped half of his classes. The reason he got kicked out of those colleges was that he was not only violating the rules for financial aid which is to take a minimum of 12 units a semester, but that he wasn't making enough progress towards a degree or for transferring.

I see no problem with her demand. I would just make her work every Friday and Saturday so that others can take those days off.

About the only time I want a Chickfila is on a Sunday, and wouldn't you know it they don't open on Sunday.

Okay guys, I get that if you dont ask you dont receive.

But why should one employee be allowed ALL sundays off even if they asked?

Church is three hours for mormons and usually over by 5.

The GM is currently having her work evening shifts.

So she is still able to go to church AND work.

But that is not good enough, she wants the WHOLE day off... just like anyone else would.

I mean personally I think it would be nice to just share the Sundays off, and thats tacitly how it always worked before.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2015 08:37PM by nonsequiter.

Sundays are especially valuable for anyone with kids in school. It isn't too much to expect that weekends are fairly rationed.

I feel the same as some others. I would volunteer to work every Sunday and let her have the day off. But, you could exchange that for giving me every Saturday off....

If you hire on at a company who works Sundays, everyone should take their turn. My daughter, when she first went TBM, requested she have Sundays off as a bus driver for Princess Cruises in Alaska. It didn't take long and she decided she would work Sundays to be fair.

I do medical transcription. I always work weekends and always have. I take the shifts that nobody else wants usually. Well,l the medical transcription industry has taken a hit in the last 8 to 10 years with a lot of work going offshore. Guess who still has a job? The local R.S. president worked for the same company as I do. She got laid off 3 years ago. And my boss/owner of the company is mormon.

If an employee makes a request for religious accommodation the employer cannot retaliate by cutting their hours etc.. It is well within this person's rights to request Sunday off. I am not sure why this seems to be an issue with so many people here.

You cannot discriminate based on
Race, Color, Sex, Religion, National Origen and Age (over 40)

It becomes an issue of fairness. If employee A gets every Sunday off, and employee B, who is not religious, but wants to enjoy some free weekend time, never gets Sundays off, it can breed resentment.

If you hired someone for 40 hours a week, telling them when hired that you could give them 40 hours as long as one of the days was Sunday, and they then tell you they can't work Sundays, that means THEY are cutting their own hours to 32 hours a week, not the employer. It's not the employers responsibility to continue to give an employee 40 hours (or how ever many hours a week they were hired for) when the employee changes the availability they were hired for. Cutting their hours because they are no longer available for the hours they were hired for is NOT discrimination.

I do NOT live in Utah, but rather Minnesota. My husband just told me tonight that for his work, they got to decide on a 'team' event. Someone suggested a football game for the Vikings, taking the wives along. They decided on a date and everybody was totally excited about it (because tickets are expensive). Well, one guy raised his hand and asked what day of the week that was on. It would be a Sunday. He said that he 'couldn't go because they don't do anything like that on Sundays.' Guess what - he's Mormon! So, the boss said they would have to come up with something else because everyone had to be included. The one Mormon in the group ruins it for everyone, and all over attending a sporting event on a Sunday...!

That's really unfair. Hopefully, this event will keep the rest of the co-workers from ever being curious about Mormonism.

The awful thing is, that story would be used by him and other mormons as a faith promoting story. We've all heard them, usually in the children's friend magazine how non members are soooo impressed by mormon "standards" that they'll change their arrangements to accommodate that one person.......

So Steve Young, Roy Halladay, Jimmer and Jabari Parker didn't get the memo?

Oh, right, those rules only matter for the rank and file. Make the cult look good (by the definition of the Q15) and every "sin" is forgiven.

I had to give up my job because I worked on Sundays all day. (It was unfair). I caught pneumonia, and decided to quit. I had a fever of 104!!

Unless your Steve Young. Then you're exempt from the rules we lowly regular folks follow.

When I worked at JCPenney they tried to be fair and only schedule people to work 1 Sunday a month, because basically everyone working there was mormon.

Well one lady thought she was extra super-special more mormon than everyone else, and she'd let them schedule her, but then would call in sick every time.

So then someone would have to do the last-minute scramble, calling everyone else in her department (many of whom were getting ready for church themselves) to cover her shift...

"Sure, you can have every Sunday off, but you'll have to work a double shift every Saturday."

I don't know exactly what the law is, but I would think something should be said before the person is hired. Did the employer let it be known the person would have to work Sundays? Did the person tell the employer before he/she was hired that they couldn't work Sundays? Sounds like a lack of communication.