WPA in the News

Beyond December: Creating Inclusive Holiday Policies for the Workplace

January 5, 2009
Employment Relations Today: Questions and Answers Column (Vol. 35, Issue 4)
By Lynn Lieber, Esq.

This article was published in the journal Employment Relations Today.
Reprints are available online at Wiley InterScience.

As organizations enter a new year, many are relieved to be past the “holiday season” and the challenges it brings to the workplace. However, organizations that think this way may be unwittingly excluding many of their employees. They may also be putting themselves at risk for higher turnover, morale problems, and even lawsuits.

In today’s global culture, forward-thinking organizations are increasingly recognizing the business value of a diverse workforce and going to great lengths to achieve a multicultural workplace. With the business benefits, diversity brings unique challenges. Particularly as religious and cultural differences fill the workplace, tricky issues can arise for employers and supervisors. Consequently, organizations must learn to recognize and respond appropriately to complicated issues related to holidays and religious observances year-round.

HOW DO HOLIDAYS AFFECT ORGANIZATIONS?

Organizations are affected year-round by holidays in many ways, from workplace celebrations to holiday-related requests for time off and special needs, including fasting, prayer, and the presence of religious items at work. Many organizations do not take into account how a workplace celebration surrounding one holiday may offend employees who celebrate another holiday – or do not celebrate at all. Some, in an attempt to avoid traditional religious holidays, may center a workplace celebration around a cultural holiday – without anticipating the negative connotations for certain employees. The way an organization approaches holidays and holiday-related needs can affect the morale of its employees. Organizations that put into place appropriate policies regarding holidays will not only avoid costly legal problems and lowered morale, but also will foster a culture of inclusion for all employees.

HOW DO ORGANIZATIONS DETERMINE WHICH HOLIDAYS TO CONSIDER?

When it comes to holiday-related requests, many organizations struggle with the importance of employee morale and the financial realties of granting all religious-related requests for time off. A diverse workforce may include employees who celebrate “traditional” religious holidays, those who observe neo-pagan or nontraditional holidays, and those who don’t celebrate at all. When adding cultural holidays to the list as well, many organizations aren’t sure how to determine which holidays to consider and how to balance the needs of all with the requests of a few.

The issue becomes more complicated when organizations try to keep track of the different holidays employees may celebrate, including moveable holidays that are based on calendars other than the Gregorian one and holidays known by different names depending on the individual, the location, and the interpretation of the holiday.

Some organizations, in an attempt to avoid conflicts or the potential for offending some employees, opt to keep everything related to holidays – both cultural and religious – out of the workplace. However, this kind of blanket policy can actually backfire, causing employees to feel their beliefs aren’t valued and their needs are ignored.

Although employees may differ in what and how they celebrate, with a little effort organizations can address holiday-related issues without alienating anyone. By creating a policy on holidays that focuses on the individual, rather than adhering to a blanket policy, organizations can meet the needs of their employees without sacrificing morale or inclusion. Focusing on the individual does not mean that organizations should rely on the individual to teach the organization about a particular tradition. It’s up to HR management to act proactively, taking the initiative in learning about the relevant holidays rather than asking members of minority groups to educate the department or organization.

HOW CAN TIME OFF FOR HOLIDAYS BE GRANTED WITHOUT SACRIFICING PRODUCTIVITY?

Granting time off for religious reasons does not mean an organization must sacrifice productivity. Because employees celebrate different holidays and have different needs, organizations can actually take advantage of the fact that not all employees will want to take the same days off. Organizations that wish to remain open on certain holidays – or don’t want “traditional” holiday seasons to affect their output – may opt to allow employees floating days off for holidays.

Even if offices are typically closed on certain days, it may be beneficial to the organization to allow some employees to work from home on those “traditional holidays.” In exchange, those employees will take days off when they celebrate. Policies that take into account the individual can maximize productivity by eliminating the need for certain employees to take off days when the organization is closed in addition to missing work for the holidays they celebrate. Flexible policies regarding time off also help employees feel valued and eliminate the potential for giving certain employees the impression that their needs come second to colleagues with different beliefs.

Offering flextime in certain situations is another way to help maximize productivity while minimizing negative feelings from employees with religious needs. For example, allowing an employee to leave work a few hours early to attend a religious service and make those hours up on another day may prevent the employee from simply taking the entire day off. Policies like these can reduce overall employee absenteeism and improve morale. This type of policy works best when supervisory employees consider the needs of the individual when determining how to respond to requests for time off related to religious practices.However, organizations should be certain that such time-off policies are extended also to employees who celebrate cultural holidays or no religious or cultural holidays. For example, policies allowing floating days off for holidays should also incorporate the needs of employees who request time off for holidays such as Veterans Day (also known as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day).

HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS APPROACH HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS IN THE WORKPLACE?

Workplace holiday celebrations have become a charged subject and some organizations respond by minimizing or even avoiding celebrations altogether. Sensitivity does not mean organizations need to eschew workplace celebrations completely; actually, doing so overlooks an important chance to build camaraderie among coworkers.

Sometimes, organizations, hoping to include all employees, try to create workplace celebrations that blend the traditions from different holidays. The danger in this approach is the possibility of missing holidays that aren’t as well known. For example, rather than just including traditions from Christmas and Hanukkah, consider Boxing Day, Winter Solstice, and Kwanzaa. Remember that the holidays may have more or less importance in their respective traditions.

Always remain sensitive to and inclusive of those employees who don’t celebrate. Another well-intentioned effort organizations make to be sure all employees are included is to focus workplace celebrations around a secular holiday instead of a religious one. However, this too has inherent problems. Several popular cultural holidays that organizations might feel are inclusive could actually have negative connotations for certain employees. Halloween, for example, is viewed as offensive by some Christians, Wiccans, and others who feel its pagan origins make it inappropriate for the workplace. Thanksgiving, another holiday that is often viewed as nonoffensive, is considered a Day of Mourning, not of celebration, for some Native Americans in the United States and people who do antiracism work. Even a New Year’s party may be problematic for certain employees whose religious calendars celebrate the new year on a different date than the Gregorian calendar dictates.

Again, this does not mean that all workplace celebrations are taboo. In today’s global culture, celebrations surrounding one and only one religion do not belong in the workplace. However, celebrations that are inclusive and do not single out specific beliefs – and do not exclude those who don’t celebrate at all – are appropriate. A best practice for workplace celebrations are organization parties that do not center on holidays.

SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS SEND HOLIDAY CARDS TO EMPLOYEES?

Historically, many organizations have sent out holiday cards at the end of the year to employees and their families. Some, in an attempt to be inclusive, send out several different types of cards, to account for different faiths. While this is a step in the right direction, this approach neglects to consider employees who don’t belong to the specific faiths listed in the cards, as well as those with multiple faiths in their immediate families. It also does not include employees who don’t celebrate or those who don’t celebrate at this time of year.

Still, organizations that want to send cards to employees should not be discouraged from doing so. Rather than focusing on one or several faiths, a better approach would be to send out cards that are inclusive of everyone. If organizations want to do this at the end of the fiscal year, one possibility is to have cards that focus on the organization’s accomplishments from the past year and the goals for the year to come. This type of approach helps create employees who feel valued as important members of the organization and avoids the negativity that can result from noninclusive holiday-related cards.

WHAT OTHER RELIGIOUS-RELATED NEEDS SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS CONSIDER?

Often, organizations put into place policies that address time off for religious reasons, but neglect to consider other ways in which religious beliefs can affect the workplace. It is important to have policies in place for other religious-related needs, so supervisory employees know how to respond to requests and special needs related to religion, including bringing religious items to work, prayer, and fasting.

For many employees, it is important to be able to maintain their religious identity at work. As long as this does not intrude on the workplace environment of their colleagues, allowing employees to bring religious items into the workplace or take a break during the day for prayer can help foster a workplace of inclusion. However, supervisors should be careful to ensure employees do not bring items – even those related to religious beliefs – that are inappropriate for the workplace. For example, a day planner related to a holiday celebrating fertility would be appropriate, provided it didn’t contain sexually explicit material.

Supervisors should also be certain employees do not try to convert others to their faith at work. Bringing personal items of a religious nature, or taking time to pray during lunch, are acceptable, but employees may not use these as a way to proselytize to others. Another often-overlooked religious consideration that affects people of many different faiths is fasting. Both fasting and dietary restrictions of employees should be taken into account when organizations plan events involving food. Anything from an organizationwide lunchtime meeting to dinner with clients can pose problems for employees whose religion mandates fasting or dietary restrictions at certain times. Organizations can avoid offending or excluding employees by being cognizant of this issue and not having work-related events that involve food during these times.

Creating a workplace that balances the needs of all employees without stifling individual beliefs is a challenging process. Rather than creating restrictive blanket policies, the better approach is to consider the situation and needs of the individual. Taking the initiative to learn about a wide variety of religious and cultural traditions and then approaching the differences from a place of respect goes a long way toward creating policies that work for everyone.

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