Religion and the workplace

In theory, religion plays no role at a workplace. However, in practice, it does

What role does one’s religion play at the workplace? 

In theory, zero. In practice, a lot.

At Conzerv Systems (which was sold to Schneider Electric Ltd in 2009), we respected all faiths and gave special privileges to none. As a principle it was easy enough to preach. But it was tough to practise. It was even tougher to not react negatively to demands for special allowances for different faiths.

Let me share three stories to illustrate:

> 1. 

While planning the inauguration of our new manufacturing facility and corporate office in Bengaluru, there was a general chorus that the programme should start with an invocation to goddess Laxmi/Saraswathi. While I had absolutely no objection to that, provided it was sung well, I was acutely aware that we had people from all faiths in the company. I decided, therefore, that we would have multi-faith prayers.

I invited a mullah to read and translate a few verses from the Koran; an English teacher from my son’s school (which was a Christian institution) sang The Lord’s Prayer; and a group of Conzervians sang the invocation to the Hindu goddess.

Later, as the guests went around the beautiful new facility, I thought to myself: I can feel the presence of something divine. Was it just the euphoria that the event had gone off without incident? Perhaps. What I did feel at that moment was sheer joy to see sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, the Muslim religious teacher and Hindu priests from the local temple, walking shoulder to shoulder, smiling and talking.

No one raised slogans against another. No one was made to feel they did not belong…

> 2.

Around 1998, I had instituted a system for the operators on the shop floor to nominate the best worker for the month, or “Toperator”, on mutually agreed criteria. A photograph of the winner with a citation was put up on the bulletin board, which was very visible on the shop floor. At the time, we were still in the early years of a painful turnaround and busy rebuilding morale across the company (for more, read Lift Off — Transforming Conzerv published by Westland, 2019).

One morning I came to work to find a visibly agitated works manager.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The Toperator this month is Muslim,” he said.

“So?”

“Well, someone has scrawled a giant ‘OM’ symbol across his photograph,” he whispered.

I was outraged. I asked the manager to go right back and tell the team on the shop floor that:

a) We considered this an offence and a violation of our code of conduct.

b) The offender would need to come forward and if so, he or she would get a patient hearing, a warning and counselling etc and be let off.

c) If we did not get a voluntary confession, we would interview each one no matter how long it took, till we found the culprit.

Since no one came forward, we had the HR manager and the works manager talk to each person individually. All fingers pointed to one employee. In my conversation with him, I found him unrepentant, almost proud of what he had done. We gave him a written warning, transferred him to the stores area as an immediate penal measure, increased his supervision and started counselling.

These actions sent a signal to the rest of the company: You don’t get special privileges just because you are of a certain faith even if it is in the “majority”. And two, if you offend the feelings of people of another faith, you pay.

Over time, he realised there was no merit in wearing his faith on his sleeve and that in this company, work was indeed worship. He saw hard work and talent was rewarded, almost out of proportion and conversely, flouting the values code was punished.

> 3.

Just months after we had settled into our new corporate office, a young man from the shop floor asked me to earmark a place in the factory building for him and three others to offer prayers at specific times during the working day. He also said he wanted the supervisor to allow them time off for prayers. I told him we fully supported his right to his faith and to pray but that we could neither earmark a place nor give extra time off as it would be unfair to others. Instead, he could use the large common space we had leading to the top terrace where no one would intrude and adjust tea and lunch break times so they could pray. The unspoken “or else” from the company was that if they did not find this a satisfactory arrangement, they were free to resign.

Fortunately, all four of the operators agreed and the peace was not disturbed.

But the incident taught me, again, how important it was for our actions to reflect our policy of respect for all faiths with special privileges to none.

The writer is former CEO of Conzerv and author, Lift Off — Transforming Conzerv, published by Westland Books