BALANCING RELIGION, BOTTOM LINE : SPIRITUALITY HELPS SOME WORKERS COPE WITH STRESS OF WORKPLACE ON THE JOB.

Byline: Mara Der Hovanesian Contra Costa Times 

Every Tuesday at noon, a small group of executives files out of corporate offices in San Francisco's financial district, donned in business attire and a winning attitude. These lawyers, human resource managers, tax accountants and other professionals head purposely to the ninth floor of the Shell Building on Bush Street for a lunchtime meeting.

It is a power lunch for the soul.

For 2-1/2 years they have participated in ``The Spirituality at Work Project,'' a program under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of California that seeks to help business people explore the practical connections between their spirituality and work. In weekday conversations, these executives search together for deeper understanding of the reality of a divine spirit in their daily lives.

During the hour, the group of about 25 sorts out its frustrations: uncertain job security, increasing workload, the lack of managerial support, the longing for greater connection and meaning.

``This ministry is not about getting people to accept Christ as their lord and savior. It's about helping people who are looking for deeper meaning with what they do,'' said the project's director, Whitney Roberson, who will be ordained an Episcopalian priest next year. ``The severe focus on making a profit and increasing shareholder value violates the wholeness of human beings.''

Like Roberson, Rabbi Richard Winer at Congregation Beth Emek in Livermore, Calif., provides food for the soul at a synagogue founded 40 years ago by workers from the Lawrence Livermore Lab. The battle between work and spiritual life is ongoing in this congregation of predominantly scientific minds.

``Science will only go so far and if you want to live a rewarding life, there's got to be something else, and for many people that is religion and spirituality,'' said Winer. ``It gives you a sense of purpose. You set up this scenario of all these difficult things to do, and if you didn't have a greater purpose to doing them, boy, it would really be difficult to get up in the morning.''

Hope and a prayer may never have meant so much for the overworked and out of work than in today's business climate. Whether it's faith in Jesus, Allah or Buddha, believers say spiritual thinking is often the glue that repairs fractured lives and broken careers. It can be an effective motivating tool that gives perspective to the harried lifestyles of dual-income earners and single parents, high-powered executives and home-based business people.

Religion provides mail-order businesses such as the Sierra Trading Post in Wyoming with a code of business ethics ``consistent with the faith of the owners in Jesus Christ and His teachings'' a customer-service guarantee published on all order forms along with promises of top-quality, low-cost outback merchandise.

And religion gives the $500 million, Chick-Fil-A chain of 725 fast-food restaurants a credo to do business by: ``Glorify God.'' The privately held Atlanta, Ga.-based business, led by its Christian founder, S. Truett Cathy, is closed Sundays.

Religion supports entrepreneurs such as Danville, Calif., resident Kelly Hill, who named his business ``Reliance'' as a testimony to his faith. Hill says God is a full partner in his business, helping to make day-to-day operating decisions.

Jyotsna Sanzgiri, an organizational psychologist and dean at the California School of Professional Psychology in Alameda, Calif., said people who balance their inner and outer lives are much more productive on the job. ``Professional people are taking another look at reasons for why they come to the workplace,'' Sanzgiri said. ``Finally, Eastern and Western spirituality are having some influence. It's sort of leaving the closet.''

Spirituality also has taken to the skies. Alaska Airlines tucks a business card-size note, quoting an Old Testament psalm, in the lunch trays of 10 million customers who fly the airline each year. Psalm 107:1 ``Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever'' is one of four spiritual messages that passengers might get with a ham sandwich.

``We have people who say, `Gee, are you trying to establish a religion or push off a belief?' '' said Lou Cancelmi, a spokesman for the Seattle-based airline. ``But nobody is forcing anybody to read them or for that matter to buy a ticket on Alaska.''

Despite much-touted healing powers, religion and spirituality in the workplace are not sacrosanct. Some said an increase in discrimination suits nationwide indicate a growing intolerance for religious symbols or practices at the office. Others said Christian legal groups pushing to preserve religious freedoms are behind the growing caseload.

The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based conservative Christian group, takes about 500 cases a year and handles about 1,000 calls a month on workplace religion. Along with a another organization that helps conservative Christians, the American Center for Law and Justice in Virginia, the institute is largely responsible for a 35 percent jump in religious complaints to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1990 to 1996, when 2,949 such complaints were filed.

``It's totally off the radar screen,'' said Kelley Shackelford, an attorney with Rutherford in Dallas. ``There's definitely a massive shift going on. It used to be no question that there were many more school cases. I would say that in the future the workplace is going to be the major battle area.''

Employers have had to make room for the religious beliefs of their workers since 1964 when Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act was adopted. The law requires companies make a ``reasonable accommodation'' for employees' or prospective employees' religious observances and practices, unless they can prove substantial financial impact or an undue hardship. Flexible scheduling, voluntary substitutions, job reassignments and lateral transfers are examples of accommodating an employee's religious beliefs.

While the most common conflict between employers and workers regarding religion has focused on shift assignments, new court cases are beginning to challenge the interpretation of ``reasonable accommodation'' and setting new legal precedents.

One case settled in October involved a California Department of Education computer analyst, Monte Tucker from Sacramento, who created a screen saver that read ``SOTLJC'' or ``Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.'' His supervisors threatened him with suspension if he didn't remove the acronym. The department then issued a policy forbidding religious advocacy during work hours and storage or display of any religious artifacts except in closed offices.

Tucker sued arguing that the policy violated his First Amendment right to free speech, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed. The judges ruled that the policy was not reasonable because there was no disruption to the work force, the rules were too broad and the policy was not necessary to protect Tucker's co-workers.

Opposition to religion in the workplace comes in other forms. Oakland-based Svenhard Swedish Bakery, a family-owned business that makes about 800,000 Danish pastries daily for grocery store chains nationwide, used to shut down the plant for a paid, 15-minute Bible study during each shift. The practice was put to an end in the mid-1960s after the 47-year-old bakery was challenged by the bakers union.

RELIGION IN THE WORKPLACE

Here are some tips on how employers should address the issue of religion:

Use caution when considering accommodations for new workers. It's illegal to refuse to hire someone simply because you might have to offer a reasonable accommodation. But you're not prohibited from hiring another applicant who's more qualified. Just be sure to clearly document your nondiscriminatory reasons for rejecting the person who required an accommodation and selecting someone else.

Initiate talks on accommodations. Once an employee informs you of a religious scheduling conflict, you must consider and offer possible accommodations. Doing this is important because if you don't come up with a proposal that eliminates the conflict, you may have to accept the employee's suggested accommodation or be able to show why it's an undue hardship.

Explore alternative work schedules such as swaps between employees; flexible scheduling or lateral transfers.

Keep the burden on co-workers to a minimum. You're not required to give an employee preferential treatment.

Don't focus on the sincerity of religious beliefs. Courts are reluctant to analyze what is a bona fide religion or religious belief and they don't want you to do so either. Unless the situation is rare, the safest course is to take the employee's word that his or her religious practices really do conflict with the worker's job obligations

- Source: California Employer Advisor, November 1996

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Box: RELIGION IN THE WORKPLACE (See text)

Photo: Members of ``The Spirituality at Work Project'' attend a weekly meeting in San Francisco to discuss their religious faith and their lives at work.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service