Can I be terminated for refusing to do religious work?

[Jburdier515]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL

I was hired to be the EA to the Managing Partner. I interviewed and was told that I would be working with the office manager and handling administrative office procedures. The day I started the OM referred to me as the assistant to the atty. This was fine, the problem started when the atty decided he wanted to start a TV Ministry program that gives back to the community. He quickly started throwing all kinds of marketing projects at me. Make a brochure, order promotional materials, and then he asked me to start calling pastors and asking them to be a part of this tv ministry program. I told the OM on several occasions that I am not comfortable with the work I am doing and that it is not what I was hired to do. She said she would speak with him. I guess my question now is, he has told me that I need to be at the church for the taping of the program and I am going to tell him that I will not do this. I do not feel comfortable with this line of work. Can I be terminated because of this? Should I call the EEOC? I am looking for other positions but in the meantime I feel like I should not have to put up with this. The firm is a PI firm, nothing to do with churches. I would appreciate any guidance.

 

[commentator]

Do not quit this job. Let them terminate you. I will explain why I say this.

The short answer is, oh yes, you can be terminated by your employer for any reason. They have no responsibility to make you happy on the job, to keep their hiring agreement as to what the job would involve, or to keep you employed if they don't want you any more.

The EEOC would only be interested if the reason you were being terminated was related to age, sex, race, you know, one of those EEOC issues. I don't see any reason why this one would be of any interest to the EEOC. Yours is an "at will" state. Therefore if you do not want to participate in the job as it has changed into, instead of what you were originally led to understand it would be, you have two options. You can quit the job "at will" or you can refuse to cooperate with what the employer is asking of you, and he may or may not elect to terminate you "at will" for it.

There's no law, no agency that will intervene between you and the employer and force them to make changes that would solve your issues. Your only recourse is to find another job and then leave, or to keep working there. If you do this, you will either have to get it established that you don't do these jobs, or you will have to learn to do them.

If you do not feel comfortable doing some of the things he has asked you to do, be sure you attempt to negotiate and refuse in a very polite and professional way. Do not allow yourself to be goaded into anger or "I quit!" because if you do that, you will likely not be able to draw unemployment benefits while looking for another job. If, however, the employer decides to terminate you because you don't want to do the fund raising or appear in the videos, then you can file for unemployment benefits. If you are approved, the employer's tax rate for unemployment taxes will go up, because he would have to show that he had a valid job related misconduct reason to terminate you from the position in order to keep you from being able to draw unemployment benefits.

If you quit the job, in order to receive unemployment, you'd have to show you had a very serious, job related reason to quit. And if you quit, the first thing they are going to ask you is "What did you do to try to resolve the problem before you quit. They'd want to see that you had exhausted all reasonable alternatives to quitting before you left.

In any case, the first thing you should do, before anything else happens, is to speak directly to your employer. The office manager, or whoever it is that you spoke to several times already does not seem to be helping you resolve the problem. You need to talk directly to this attorney, tell him that you are an office professional, not an actor or a fund raiser, and that you will be glad to do your duties to the best of your ability, but you don't feel comfortable doing what he is asking of you. If he at this point elects to terminate you, move forward, file for unemployment benefits, and begin seeking another job.

 

[Jburdier515]

thank you!

I plan to do this today. Thank you.

 

[cbg]

I have a question for the OP, and I'm drawing a very fine line here.

Is it the work that you are being asked to do, or the religious aspect that bothers you here? If the attorney/office manager/whomever were asking you to take on the exact same tasks for a non-religious charity, would your reaction be the same?

 

[Jburdier515]

I have a question for the OP, and I'm drawing a very fine line here.

Is it the work that you are being asked to do, or the religious aspect that bothers you here? If the attorney/office manager/whomever were asking you to take on the exact same tasks for a non-religious charity, would your reaction be the same?

It's the religious aspect of it that I am not comfortable with. For instance, I am being asked to reach out to local pastors and ask do be a part of this show and they all start writing back with God says this and God says that and bla bla bla. I have my own religious beliefs and do not want to be dealing with other people religious stuff as part of my job. If I wanted that, then I would go have applied for a job at a church. So the answer is, if you took the religious equation out of it, I would be fine.

 

[cbg]

For the most part, your job is what your employer says it is, whether it's the job you were hired to do or not. And I'm a long, long way from being sure that you have anything relating to a religious discrimination/harassment issue for the EEOC to look at, or that you would have legal recourse if termed for refusing. But I'm not 100% sure that you don't/wouldn't, either.

So my response would be to explain to the attorney why you are uncomfortable with this and see if you can resolve it. But if you can't, I don't think it would hurt to have a consultation with an attorney of your own, or with whoever answers the phone at the EEOC. It may come to nothing and you may be stuck with doing it. I'm leaning in that direction, since you're not being asked to participate in anyone else's religious beliefs and nothing in the law says you're never going to have to come in contact with someone else's religion. But I'm not entirely certain that there's NO case here, either.

 

[Jburdier515]

gotcha! Time 4 a new job lol!