Practice Management Alert

Question:  I practice a different religion that most of my colleagues, and our office during the holiday season is very merry and bright, but that doesn’t feel welcoming to me, and the office feels pretty oppressive for a good sixth of the year. I can tell some patients feel a little overwhelmed by the décor as well. Is there anything I can do to help my colleagues better understand my needs?

Michigan Subscriber

Answer:  While some holiday decorations may help people feel in tune with their own traditions and practices, the same décor can be overwhelming or even offensive for others. Court precedent — and general workplace compassion — may be on your side.

“Employers who plan to decorate common work areas should strive to avoid the appearance of endorsing one religion over another,” says Stephane J. Lowe, an associate at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, a California law firm, on the firm’s blog.

“Employers who wish to decorate the workplace should use nonreligious, winter-themed decorations such as snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes, holly, and gingerbread houses,” she suggests.

Whatever your practice chooses, there may be risks of alienating a staff member or a patient.

“In determining whether a public entity’s holiday and seasonal display that attempts to include all types of religions and beliefs conforms with the Establishment Clause, federal courts consider three factors:

(1) “whether the display is noncoercive;

(2) “whether the display does not give a direct benefit to religion in such degree to establish or tend to establish religion; and

(3) “whether the display conveys a message to the reasonable observer that the combined display was an effort to acknowledge cultural diversity,” Lowe says.

For more information on this ruling, see American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey ex rel. Lander v. Schundler.

Important: Mistletoe is never appropriate for a workplace.