Religion at Work

Dear Evil HR Lady,

A young lady I work with is very involved in her church and likes to talk about her beliefs and all the other things that come along with her particular flavor of worship. While I don’t mind her talking about 90% of what she does, sometimes she crosses the line and goes from a friendly conversation/lighthearted debate to some pretty intense, very awkward blaming, condemning, and preaching.

Like I said before, I’m okay with her talking about her beliefs to a point, but it’s coming to the point where her constant preaching is not just annoying, but it’s causing tension to rise in my department. It’s become so bad that my coworkers have begun to ask our supervisor to schedule them so they don’t have to work with this lady.

She’s upset now because the company his having a holiday party and she doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

I spoke with my HR manager about the issues going on, but I think she is hesitant to say anything to my coworker about this because of the religion issue.

I don’t dislike my coworker, but she’s becoming almost unbearable to be around. Everyone has catered to her needs when it comes to her church activities and continues to be sensitive towards her situation. That being said, it’s becoming more and more obvious that she is using her particular circumstance to make everyone else miserable.

Is there anything I can do to keep this situation from getting worse? How would you handle the situation if you were in my shoes?

Religion at Work