New strain of workplace banter? Religious mockery replaces sexist jokes

A new report by the Faith Research Centre finds that workers who would not make sexist or racist jokes mock beliefs instead. Often, the jokes result in low level exclusion, but staff rarely report this. The research also found that HR managers have a very different view of what’s happening in their workplace than many workers do. How sure are you that you know what is happening in your workplace?

Workers who would not make sexist or racist comments mock beliefs instead - a new report by Faith Research Centre at ComRes has found. Up to one million workers in Britain may have experienced workplace harassment, discrimination or bullying because of their religious beliefs.

The report authors categorised being the butt of religious jokes as “lower level exclusion”; and out of those who experienced some form of it, many felt uncomfortable reporting it o managers.

"Some people told us they felt uncomfortable about mentioning that they pray," says Katie Harrison, Director of ComRes Faith Research Centre. “Or we heard of people feeling upset that religion was the butt of jokes in a workplace where people have become much more aware about making disparaging comments about gender or disability."

One respondent said: “In our office, everyone is very respectful of minorities and would never be disparaging about women or people with disabilities, but when it comes to religion it’s fair game. People can be very insulting, especially when they express it through humour.”

The Belief at Work study suggests that British employers struggle to manage expressions of religion and belief in the workplace, finding disparities between HR and employees.

Harrison explains: “We found that HR managers have a very different view of what’s happening in their workplace than many workers do. Many HR managers say they make provision for employees to pray at work and observe holy days and religious festivals, but workers say that’s not happening.”

She found that many religious people felt unable to tell colleagues that they had been to a mosque or church at the weekend and could not talk freely about religious aspects of their lives - 35% say that people in their workplace never talk about religion, however, only two per cent of HR managers say they are actively discouraged from doing so.

The report found that a small number of HR managers are not confident in dealing with a diversity/equality issue related to religion. They cited that their organisation does not have a policy or procedure which they could follow (42%), whilst a third (33%) say they have not had training.

The report suggests that the first step to tackling diversity issues is by listening to colleagues, to find out what barriers and opportunities affect people’s openness to express their identity at work - rather than making assumptions. One employee recalled feeling singled out when their employer made an extra effort to accommodate them: “I went to a meeting and found they’d provided special food on a separate plate, and created a prayer room just for me. I don’t actually eat halal or use prayer rooms and felt uncomfortable that they’d gone to so much unnecessary effort. Their well-intentioned efforts to try to include me in fact made me feel excluded and very different to everyone else.”

In my equality update in December 2016, I signposted guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission ‘Religion or belief: an employer’s guide to religion or belief in the workplace. If you missed this update, you can access it here