Comments on: Will My Atheism Hurt My Career?

By: Suzanne Lucas

Suzanne Lucas — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:48:56 +0000

I've been quite surprised at the number of people at BNET who are admitting that they discriminate on the basis of religion.

Scary.

I knew it existed, of course, but didn't think people would come out and admit it.

By: fposte

fposte — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:48:01 +0000

If you read the thread on bnet, you'll see there are several people who would exclude a candidate for being atheist, plus one atheist who would exclude candidates for being a certain religion (there's always equal opportunity for bigotry, I guess). To my horror, they mostly don't seem to see anything wrong with that stand.

We're hiring now, and we have some tasks that may not accord with some people's religious or moral beliefs. So we tell our interviewees about these tasks and ask them if they'll be able to perform them. Even if it were legal, why would we use religion as a dubiously reliable predictor of the answer when we can just get the actual answer, and what difference does the religion make if the answer's what we need?

By: Another Evil HR Director

Another Evil HR Director — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:18:42 +0000

Is this networking site known to be offensive, or its members known for causing trouble in a community? The reason I ask, is that your membership on such a site would not, in and of itself, turn off a prospetive employer; no more than membership in a church group of some kind if that came up in a search.

I tend to believe if there is any thought at all that your being listed as a member of this site is hurting you professionally, it would be because this group is known for some sort of undesirable and disruptive behavior, rather than it being a site for atheists.

If there are truly any HR professionals out there who have told you they believe you could be excluded from consideration from a job simply because you're an antheist, they are either unaware of employment regulations (and shouldn't therefore be in HR), or are the type to discriminate against people for other reasons (and therefore shouldn't be in HR).

By: fposte

fposte — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:37:11 +0000

It's not just a question of one's religious affiliation, though; it's more insidious than that. The fact that this is a primary thing in a search history may make some people think it's the primary thing in the applicant's life, and that they'd be an employee who proselytizes, which is a tough fit in a workplace no matter what the proselytizing is about. Absent an ability to control the internet, I'd say that making sure the resume reflects broad experience would be helpful in demonstrating that you're well-rounded, and a professional yet warm cover letter can help ensure you're thought of as a human and not a scary cipher. People who'd be genuinely horrified to have an atheist in their midst you can't do much about (beyond legal action, I guess), but those who just don't want to be preached at you can ease the way for.

I've never had any problem in workplaces because of my atheism, but I don't think anybody knew it in advance of meeting and working with me. And I've never worked in really conservative regions, so it's possible it would be different there. But in general, people are less bothered by a characteristic that's part of someone they have a fuller picture of than something that seems to be all they know about that person.

My captcha is, I kid you not, "stspited." St. Spited, the patron saint of atheists?

By: JoAnna

JoAnna — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:30:11 +0000

My perspective is that if a company won't hire you solely due to your religious affiliation (or lack thereof), they're probably not worth working for anyway.