I recently hired a new employee for my team. Everyone thinks she is a great addition, and she is clearly very talented as demonstrated in her interviews.
The problem came up during on-boarding when we supplied her with her company laptop. She said she would need it configured in a Linux based operating system because her religion does not allow use of Apple or Microsoft owned operating systems. We only currently have hardware configurations for MacOs/Windows and our expectation was that she will use Windows along with the rest of our team.
She says that she can fulfill all job duties without Windows and I am inclined to believe her but corporate policy dictates WINDOWS and my management is not on board with her request for Linux.
What actions can either (1) I take as a manager to protect her rights and get upper management onboard with her religion or (2) I take against her with management for failing to fulfill her job duties?
I've never come across any situation like this and am completely confounded as to how I should handle this.
UPDATE: After many meetings yesterday with management, HR, legal, and IT we decided to give her a shot. IT is working to come up with a configuration for her that we will also make available to other employees who want to use it.
HR and Legal felt that although she is able to request accommodations for a sincerely held religious belief, this would have been an undue hardship to the company and it would be ok for us to deny her request. But ultimately we decided that she can still fulfill job requirements without Windows!
That's pretty much it. Thank you for all the helpful advice Reddit!
Without further information I can't tell what angle the employee has with her religion. She's either hilarious or she's some kind of evangelical Qanon person who thinks Steve Jobs and Bill Gates put gay atheist mind control messages in their operating systems.
She’s either hilarious
Lol imagine making an off-hand small joke to the IT guy and next thing you know you're in a meeting with the entire HR department and 7 way overpaid lawyers.
you just gotta roll with it at that point, start making demands imo
99% chance this is made up
1% chance some Linux user is doing a bit
I'd say it was me but I've always identified as a man. There's a filesharing religion, don't want to blow up my shtick but I've affiliated with it since university, running a "mission" related to the religion.
This? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary_Church_of_Kopimism
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates put gay atheist mind control messages in their operating systems.
The world is never as cool as chuds make it out to be. :yea:
:gigachad:
You should absolutely abuse the privileges given to religious peopleWhat actions can either (1) I take as a manager to protect her rights and get upper management onboard with her religion or (2) I take against her with management for failing to fulfill her job duties?
Gotta love HR
That meme from the Simpsons with the guy jumping in front of a gun but it's HR protecting the company
Windows? That's haram. MacOS? That's haram. OS/2? Ooh, you better believe that's haram.
let's see what he's up to....
Why do I feel like I have to dumb myself down just to have a conversation with a woman about Skittles?
I don't want to sound pretentious or like a gatekeeper, but it's very annoying to have a conversation with a woman who claims to "love skittles" but has never even heard of Fizzy Skittles, let alone tried them, and then asks me "have you ever tried sour skittles" as if that's some exotic skittle flavor and not the most entry level skittles besides the original. It's just really frustrating and I'm starting to feel like I should avoid the topic altogether to be honest.
HR and Legal felt that although she is able to request accommodations for a sincerely held religious belief, this would have been an undue hardship to the company and it would be ok for us to deny her request.
IT is working to come up with a configuration for her that we will also make available to other employees who want to use it.
Holly fuck, this is how we finally get "202X will be the year of Linux on the desktop". If that IT team didn't truly want this, they would have just said no. The ground is fertile, and the perfect inroad has been established -- by religious conviction, the Microsoft monopoly may fall.
At some places I refuse to use copyrighted stuff, just to see what happens. I have a vague connection to a religious org tied to the Pirate Bay and most places just offer a severance package
