My workplace seems to be populated with many nosy people who seem intent on forcing their own views on the rest of the world. One of my colleagues is a fervently religious woman who is not content practising her faith on her own time, but instead interrogates her co-workers in their cubicles and preaches to them. On one occasion she followed me on my lunch break to a shoe store and chastised me for "shopping again."
In my case, it was the owners of the firm I worked for who were evangelical Christians. They saw it as their personal mission to preach to every one of their employees. At the time, I was stuck because I needed the pay cheque and the local economy had really tanked, so I learned to endure. I still remember the anger I felt coming into work every morning and discovering my chair littered with one new tract after another denouncing me unless I made Jesus my personal saviour. I seem to recall singing Patti Smith’s song Gloria a lot under my breath (Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine) while I was at work.
When production issues would come up the first question the boss would ask was ‘what do you think Jesus would do’ which is probably why I have very little patience for those kind of questions today. Frankly, there is nothing more off-putting about Christianity than some of its self-proclaimed representatives. The owners were not bad people per say but they had no concept of personal boundaries and a philosophical doctrine I found fatally flawed.
I use to smile blankly and bite my lip a lot. Often I would say meaningless things like “is that so”, “well now there is a thought”, and “I will take that under consideration”. Then I would spend the return trip home desperately scanning the want ads for a way out. It all worked out in the end as I found a wonderful job working in a Chinese owned sweatshop in the heart of the garment district. It turned into one of the most fantastic experiences in my working life and perhaps I will write about it one day. Although no one tried to convert me to anything - there were many attempts at finding a suitable match for me.
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