Preface: I work for a small local ISP. There's a total of 5 of us; Me (web design), the Owners (husband and wife), their Son and another girl on Tech support. The two tech support people are fanatically involved in a local Christian Church.

What's Pissing Me Off: On a daily basis the owners son and the other tech support girl engage in non-stop "church chat". They're constantly asking me when I'm going to come to their church with them. With every conversation we have they always try to switch the subject and tie it into their pastor, their church, etc. I can't make even the slightest "dirty joke" because they take it 110% seriously and act like you just summoned up the Devil. They read passages outloud to eachother across the office, and even do this with clients coming in.

A couple months ago there was some amusing article about Janet Reno throwing a party in Florida. I was laughing about it at my desk and the girl I work with asked me what was funny. As soon as I mentioned Janet Reno, she gets this disgusted look on her face then cuts me off and says "I don't like her, I don't like her one bit...". I knew where this was going, and sure enough the next sentence out of her mouth was "...she has a girlfriend."

I ended the conversation and moved onto something else, otherwise I knew we were going to get into an argument.

Over the past few months, I've been throwing on my headphones each time they go into one of their preaching sessions. I figured it's better than stirring anything up at this point, and a way for me to passively tune them out.

Yesterday, they invited me to their church again, and went on this big rant about how I shouldn't be living alone, and that they're going to find me "a nice christian woman" at their church. I declined.

This morning the two coworkers are looking at a picture someone emailed them, and start saying crap like "he's definitely light in loafers" or however the expression goes.

Basically I'm just waiting for either of them to say one more thing before I go off on them. For the most part I'm "out". This is the only job where I've kept it to myself only because of the fact that we're such a small company and my coworkers are very intolerant.

Now the big problem is, I just moved into a new apartment, and dumped alot of money into furnishing it. So from now on my budget is a bit tighter, but I definitely can't afford to loose this job. There aren't many jobs in my field where I live.

Now the owners are not by any means bible thumpers, in fact they're way more laid back than their son. They swear, tell "obscene jokes" etc. In fact, if I explained the problem to them I have a feeling they would hear me out instead of calling me a heathen.

But if I do bring this up there really aren't many options. 1.) They tell their son and the other girl to keep their mouths shut, then I gotta continue working with these people. If they fire both of them, then I'm going to feel uncomfortable at work because they're gonna be screwed till they hire two new people 2.) I quit and go broke trying to find another job around here. 3.) I tell them both off and get fired for flipping out at work.

Any ideas? lol
[This message was edited Mon Mar 10 9:27:00 PST 2003 by Tom]

Fucking hell Tom, sorry to hear about that. Your workmates sound a bit peculiar. We have one religious person in our office (a born again Baptist type) but he has the decency to keep his beliefs to himself and such discussion out of the workplace. It just wouldn't be professional to engage in such discussion.

It sounds like "coming out" in the office might not be an option, since you want to keep the job and the owners are small minded... I guess all you can do is ignore them and let them know that you find such discussion inappropriate for the workplace, and that how you live and with whom is not their business.

Cheeky gits!

Hi Tom.

I think that you should tell your bosses about their behavior. They should definitely tone it down! What they may be trying to do is win your soul for Christ when in actuality they are turning you more aginst Him than toward Him.

I would also turn up the music!! Whatever you listen to to block them out!!

Hope that helps a little.

Tina (~!~)

Tell them you worship Satan! No, seriously, I would talk to my boss about how uncomfortable this is making you. If it falls on deaf ears, maybe you can begin to look for another job before you leave that one.

Goddamn, that sucks...

Ask them if they would like to go to a ritualistic sacrifice to the Dark Lord with you... tell them that you intend to slaughter 13 lambs and a number of chickens.

IceNine said:

IceNine, you fuckin' kill me!

stymie said:

Your post has made me think of another option...

Tom could KILL THEM!

Simple.

Keep work at work and home life at home and remind them that's quite a corporate policy shared by all businesses.

There are plenty of bible verses that talk about "minding your own business" if you want to share those with them as well.

Sorry to hear that you have to work so closely to them all day.

Sounds like you have a good grip on the situation though.

IceNine said:

:LOL:

Run away, quit and run away now. Don't look back, sheeet there are labour protection laws for everything, surely this comes under harassment. If one of them wasn't the son of the owners I would definitely follow the IceNine approach. As it is, run and keep running.


[This message was edited Mon Mar 10 9:39:05 PST 2003 by Soapstone]