Woman says firm fired her for being a Christian

[ticapnews]

A Schaumburg company allegedly fired a woman, and one employee is accused of calling her a "devil worshipper" after she disclosed she practiced Christianity -- a pagan religion viewed by some as witchcraft.

Now, the woman is suing.

Rebecca Sommers said the company fired her in 2004, citing poor job performance. She had worked with the firm since 2002.

But Sommers insists in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that Crawford & Company Inc. fired her because supervisors there didn't like her religion.

Crawford is a Georgia-based insurance adjusting firm with an office in Schaumburg. Representatives there could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sommers, an accounts analyst, said when she requested a day off for a Christian holiday, she was told by a manager to keep her religion "to herself." She said another supervisor who knew she practiced Christianity called her a devil worshipper in front of other employees.

Sommers said that before revealing her religion she received a favorable review and a bonus. But after her supervisors knew about Christianity, she started getting warnings and told she wasn't returning customer calls fast enough.

Sommers is seeking back pay, compensatory and punitive damages.

Actually, you can replace the word "Christian" with "Wicca" and visit this page for the real story. But can you just imagine the outcry if the religion in question was Christianity, Catholicism or Judaism rather than Wicca?

There is either freedom of (and from) religion, or there isn't.

[Deja Q]

1. Amazing how "poor job performance" is so commonly used...

[MountainLaurel]

4. Indeed

A friend was fired from a restaurant manager's job for poor performance during his trial period the day after he got a preliminary review telling him he was doing a great job. Our guess is that someone realized what the rainbow sticker on his car meant.

[Cleita]

5. Yes, because it gets them off the hook, even if you were

fired because they were cutting back or wanted to give your job to a relative. When they did it to me I told personnel people that I was sexually harassed and wouldn't cooperate, which put the ball back in their court and made it into a 'he said', 'she said' situation. It also warns them away from giving you a bad reference.

[Ravenseye]

17. I worked someplace where nobdoy had a good job performance

Everyone who worked there got at best a mediocre job performance grade. They did it after 3 months, and then every 6 months. Nobody I know who worked there ever got better than a 'C' (yes they did letter grading like you were still in school). I remember my first review after getting lots of positive feedback over 3 months, and never anything negative said about me, to get a review of D on my first one that was highly critical and not at all accurate.

I assumed they did it to everyone so they could fire at will for whatever reason and claim job performance. I'm sure it's illegal too, but who knows.

[negativenihil]

2. Didn't you know?

Freedom of religion only applies to christian flavored religions and to the Jewish.

Everyone else can piss off!
:sarcasm:

[LynzM]

3. I'm reading that going...

"no way that's really about Christianity..." I'm sorry to learn I was right. Ugh.

[TexasLawyer]

6. poor, poor persecuted Christians!

When will it END!??!

:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[rniel]

7. Not surprising

You know Christians are the most discriminated against group in the entire history of the United States of America.


.....

at least that's what Fox news says.

[BOSSHOG]

10. david limbaugh has written a book about the phenomenon

christians are being persecuted in America. There is an effort to keep them from having all of us convert to christianity and believe and live our lives the way they do. Therefore, they are "persecuted." I know what Jesus would do.

[Generic Other]

8. Personally I would know that if she was fired for being Xtian

it would be code meaning she was "obnoxious" and constantly pushing her beliefs on others. Her judgmental, self-righteous attitudes would have drawn the attention of mangagement in a negative fashion. Perhaps she pushed her beliefs on customers. Maybe went out of her way to proselitize to a Jew. Perhaps insisted the office shouldn't celebrate holidays like Halloween that conflicted with her views. Went out of her way to whine about how Xtians are persecuted, about the "war on xmas..." Wearing her faith on a very large chain around her neck, using it as an anchor to weight down others.

I don't suppose this is what the wiccan did to get fired. Probably all she did was be "identified."

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. This does not surprise me. There's a lot of ignorance about Wicca

[badgerpup]

13. I know some Wiccans...

Very good, ethical people. But the older members don't go advertising the fact.
The younger ones might, but I would wager that a lot of people that you meet who are sporting a pentagram aren't necessarily Wicca, although they may be sympathetic to the belief.

[Touchdown]

11. If this were a union company, she'd have her job back

in 3 weeks. This is obvious discrimination, and they can get away with it. This is what union busting does to working people.

[readmoreoften]

16. Yip.

Union busting cost me my job. Literally.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. The first paragraph gives away your edits too fast

Replace "a pagan religion viewed by some as witchcraft" with "a monotheistic religion viewed by some as a cult".

[ticapnews]

14. Thanks. Will keep that in mind for the future :)

But I didn't want to change too much in the story. That was an edit that I could've done..

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Yeah, but ... but... Christianity is a REAL religion!

:sarcasm:

I actually had someone go off on me once, trying to explain why that town in Florida could keep a manger display on public property but take down the "Festivus for the rest of us" sign...

"But Festivus isn't a real holiday!"

:eyes: Yeah. As opposed to the real ones. Get a fucking clue.

[SoCalDem]

18. Yet another reason we need unions

Employers can/and do use just about any reason to get rid of an employee....

(don devil's advocate hat)

People are hired to do a job, and most places have a policy when taking "personal days"..Most do not ask many questions. It's usually a good idea to keep religion OUT of the workplace, so when asking for time off, just ask in advance and leave it at that. It's not a question of being "ashamed" of your faith, just a common sense way to approach being of a faith that is not widely accepted as the norm.

Every employee handbook I have ever been handed, specifically asked that politics/religion/and personal stuff be kept OUT of the workplace. The fact that Christian holidays have been embraced by our society is a given, and there's little that can be done about it, so complaining about them will do little..If the company is open for business on the common holidays, a peson who does not celebrate them can often earn brownie points by offering to work those days so that other could have them off...in exchange for a day off later (their own holiday)..

There are employees at every workplace who have a chip on their shoulder, and are looking for something to sue about....perhaps this person falls into that group...or maybe not..

[TallahasseeGrannie]

19. Playing Devil's Advocate here (pun intended)

What if she really DID a lousy job AND was a Wiccan?

Where is the line drawn? Does being a minority (race, sexuality, religion, size, etc.) protect one from a bad performance?