How Would You Handle This Email?

I’d mostly ignore it, with one aside.

If I didn’t know the person, I’d probably go and verify what the writer is saying for myself, as his trustworthiness would be a bit more suspect in my eyes.

i’d ask what the symbol meant.

if the answer was that it’s a jesus fish, i’d go with the second answer.

I read the email numerous times trying to figure out what was offensive, but got nothing until I read below. I would have never noticed the fish unless someone had pointed it out to me, and even then, I would have just thought it was some error on the email or something. For me, I don’t see anything offensive about it and I believe it isn’t a problem. Things like this is why people seem to think we’re just a bunch of angry people, getting upset about someone’s signature for their emails. Perhaps if the company was really strict about no religion at all in the work place (i.e. not allowing any recognition of it), I would ask him to remove it. It’s not like this person is saying “Hey, hey you! I’m a christian and you better like it! Look at me!” No, this is like wearing a gold cross necklace. Seriously, how many people would even catch this as a christian symbol?

I’d leave it alone. It’d be the same as if someone got upset over someone else using an emoticon. I mean hey, couldn’t that just be a fun little fish? It doesn’t specify itself as being religious.

Start adding dirty emoticons to the end of my emails.

(.)(.)

B===D

Considering I had to be told that was what it is, I would ignore it. I’m sure the vast majority of people (religious and nonreligious) would assume that was just some symbols marking the end of the letter.

Write ahetever email you were going to, and finish it with:

<

I’d ignore it. Lots of people have little quotes or other personal flair in their email signatures. If it were a Bible verse, I’d probably be more annoyed, but this thing seems pretty harmless to me.

I would talk to people I could trust (peers) and see what they think. If I could get some allies then I’d talk to someone in authority bringing up the fact that some clients may find the Jesus fish offensive.

It’s not a big deal but not really appropriate for a business letter. Now you have me wondering if there is an emoticon for the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
/| or perhaps :€?

This has the recognizable potential to make someone uncomfortable in the workplace. The title Team Leader suggests a position of authority. This is intended to be a professional communication. Dave is either (mis)representing the business as a christian organization or he is misusing company resources to promote a personal ideology. This small puncture in “maintaining a comfortable working environment” and professional etiquette may have a massive exit wound.

Further, while I took this to me an internal memo (which may not be the case) using this signature to represent the company to outside entities also (mis)represents the company as a christian organization or Dave (and by extension, the company) as unprofessional.

So no, it’s not a big deal until it becomes a big deal. And the damage done by Dave’s personal whim will likely manifest in a lack of support. Internal support would be morale. External support would be revenue. Few people are going to say they are jealous that Dave is allowed to proselytize via work and they are not. And few clients are going to tell you they had second thoughts about your business because of an email signature. But when choosing between two competitive businesses it doesn’t take much to steer someone the other way.

There are bigger things to worry about in the world than this. If it was external going to clients and I was his supervisor another thing who has the energy to fight someone on something so little.

It’s none of my business what Dave puts in his email signature. If he were my boss and he required me to include it as well, then I would start to care.

Turns out it’s pretty simple to turn a Jesus Fish into a FSM

><><

I selected the first choice; but, frankly, it’s not just not a big deal, it’s no deal at all.

I disagree with Jose’s point that it’s nobody’s business what someone puts in a sig (or uses for a background in an HTML e-mail, for example). These communications aren’t personal, they’re professional and, since this was to go to clients as well, reflect upon the whole business. This has nothing to do with the business unless it’s a church or something of a religious nature. How is the use of a contorted ASCII symbol more professional than, e. g., using a rainbow flag or pink triangle background for an e-mail or including Bible or Koran verses (or perhaps even a link to a skeptic or atheist site) in a sig? The time and place for all of that is when you’re not on company time. On company time, it’s very inappropriate.

I’m glad most votes went to “ignore it”. it’s no different than if I tagged my emails

(|o)===:::

it’s slightly unprofessional but it is not offensive in any way. I really don’t understand why atheists would care if people are open with their religion. [so long as you are allowed to be open with your atheism]

If it’s going out to clients I’d make it an issue, unless we are working at a company that is expressly religious…in which case, what the hell am I doing working there??

Though honestly, it looks less like a Jesus fish and more like a tiny virus. AHH he attached a virus to his e-mail!

As with sigs on forums I barely noticed it. I’ve seen plenty of properly annoying and offensive sigs elsewhere so I couldn’t care about three little angle brackets.

If anything I thought it was a poorly formed XML document. I guess that’s what you get for being a software dev. 😉

I would reply to the email and switch his to:
<

and add one more after my email

I’d ignore it – as long as it didn’t get any worse. By any worse I mean bible quotes, proselytizing, etc.

Not that huge of a deal in itself to me. I’d ignore it.

This is actually a pretty common practice among companies that operate in the South. A short trip through the Carolinas and you will probably pass numerous billboards for motels, car dealerships, and even a few national brands that slip in a Jesus Fish.

Most of us would view it as highly unprofessional and offensive to some prospective clients, but I suspect that there are a much larger number of people in the South who would be attracted by “Oh hey look we love Jesus, too!”

It would annoy me if someone I worked with used a < too, but sadly I think he might be helping the company if it operated in certain parts of the US.

I have received emails from outside companies with bible quotes attached, which are a bit easier to spot than this, but I’d probably respond the same way. I send a reply with an alternative, though positive, worldview comment or quote. With this one, I’d probably do something like >^^< or whatever. It let's the sender know I saw it, and I can play, too.

I’d try the passive aggressive approach…I’d hit “reply all” and ask innocently:

“What does the symbol in your sig mean?”

It isn’t a big deal, and it wouldn’t bother me, but I’d still simply politely ask them to stop. It may not bother me, but it is inappropriate for a work related email that’s to be sent out to clients.

Context really matters. If this is a multinational company it is unprofessional. If this is a christian book publisher, it may be a good idea.

In the companies I worked at it would be equally inapproproate as including anything that doesn’t professionally deal with the business at hand. That’d include any personal tag lines or emoticons of any nature.

In this context emails to clients is the face of the company. Each business has to decide what their public face is though.

I would never have known it was a Jesus fish if you hadn’t told me. I think it would have to be a bit more blatant before I’d do anything about it. But then, I may be numb to the problem given that I get prayer request emails at work almost daily. I work at a publicly-funded state university, BTW.

I didn’t realize it was a Jesus fish either, but if I kept seeing that on future emails from this person, I’d ask, “Hey, why do you keep having weird formatting at the end of your signature?”

I would probably ignore the fish, except that the email is supposedly going out to clients later that day. That’s an issue, unfortunately. So in that case, I’d still ask what was up with the weird formatting, and then I’d say, “Since this email is going out to clients, it would be more appropriate not to include that. It’s not necessary in the email, and depending on the faith of our clients, they might be offended.” If you frame it as, “You know, I don’t mind it, but our clients might,” that would be easier.

It depends. If the company has a Christian business model than of course it should be ignored or maybe even encouraged, but then I wouldn’t be there. A small company that knows it’s clientele is religious it can also be ignored. I work for a large international corporation where it is absolutely inappropriate to send this out to clients.

Ignore it. Maybe he’s just a guy that likes fishing?

As an atheist working for a Christian company, I see a LOT more than this on our employees e-mail signatures. In fact, one particular individual has the following email signature (and yes it is actually in ALL CAPS and the exclamation points are included):

“PRAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!!
HIS PRAISE SHALL CONSTANTLY BE IN MOUTH!!!!”

So it depends on the company. A company like mine, whose mission is to produce a religion friendly workplace, I just ignore it, but in a normal workplace I would just report it, as its up to their supervisor to handle things like this.

Emoticons in a work email are very unprofessional, religious or not. Anyone using emoticons in an email would come off to me like a 14 year old girl. I’d have to wonder if he’s Team Edward or Team Jacob.

To be truthful I never would have even noticed it had you not posted it on the blog here. I doubt very much I would have done anything since I seldom worry about anything beyond the text of any message I receive.

Some pretty good FSM symbols above. I’ll throw my own in the mix:

~&&~

I get wished a Blessed Day all the freakin’ time.

I get lots of “God Bless You’s” from patients and families, too. I just smile and say “Same to you.” It needles me a little, but it’s meant from the heart. They’re just saying “Thank you” and “We’re grateful.”

I have to admit that I find myself actually saying “Bless your heart.” It’s kind of a sweet phrase. You know, someone’s telling you a sad story and you say “Bless your heart!” or a story about someone’s loved one doing something stupid, you say “Bless his heart!” In the south, you can say any mean thing you want about someone, as long as it’s preceded by “Bless his heart….”

Considering the fact that I totally missed it the first time and had to squint to find it when told to, I think I’d ignore it. As far as overt religiosity goes, its about as discreet as you can possibly get. If I were ofended by this I’d have to be offended by people wearing crusifixes or FSM t-shirts or mentioning church in my presence. I simply lack the motivation to be upset all the time. Maybe if it were a Bible quote, but an ascii fish? Nah.

I voted that I would politely ask them to stop. But in truth, it depends where the coworker is using the symbol or words. I don’t mind if people have something of that nature in their skype profile or equivalent. But I don’t think it belongs in direct replies to customers, like e-mail. The profile is sort of like the workers desk, while the direct reply is in essence work done on behalf of the customer.

So where does it end? There is something to be said for zero tolerance. How about a little prayer before a business lunch? Been there done that! Why not add a little fish symbol to your business card? Personal and secular business activities should remain separate

I would be worried that it got out to the outside world. If my company was in direct dealings with a temple or mosque, then we would instantly loose that business. Especially if they were a more traditional group. So since this comment has 0 potential good and is a serious detriment under certain (I will admit rare) circumstances, I would make sure it was not ever used. It’s just bad business.

@Troglodyke – you contradict yourself. You say it’s no big deal and you wouldn’t do anything, but then you say that you do not patronize businesses with such symbols. Why risk the fact that your customers have similar feelings and don’t want to do business with you if your coworkers are using this–or any other–religious or political symbol.

HDE, that’s exactly what I thought of at first, too…

Honestly, it doesn’t bother me that much. People at work send internal e-mails all the time with silly stuff in their signatures, like little animated clip art images of polar bears skiing. I just group this into that category.

I suppose the fact that it’s from a senior employee and it’s meant to be sent to a client later does make a difference, though. If it’s internal, I don’t complain, but this sort of thing just makes you seem unprofessional. It paints the company in a bad light. Unless, of course, the client is also a devout Christian…

I worry more about the fact that I work at a nuclear research laboratory, and yet I see people with bumper stickers saying things like “Exposure to the SON may prevent burning” and with the “Truth fish eating Darwin fish” logo on their car.

I would alert him that there seems to be some invalid HTML markup in his email signature that could trigger spam filters.

It’s in the .sig at the end, and I wouldn’t be too concerned about anything in there. Unless that person discriminates against non-Christians, I don’t see anything that needs doing. It’s not very professional, true, but if anyone’s going to express themselves in an email, that’s the place for it.

http://stereoroid.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/sashimi.jpg

I didn’t notice it until it was pointed out–I doubt most people would. I think it’s a little unprofessional but hey, it’s his career neck on the line here, not mine. I would personally never add those little bits of “flare” in any kind of professional correspondence but to each their own.

Yeah, I would leave it alone (if I even noticed it.) I would probably keep an eye on him though–if he started with the scripture quoting or “gawd bless” non-sense, I would feel compelled to take action.

I’m going to concur with some of what’s been said, and clarify a legal issue here:

It’s not the same as wearing a gold cross around one’s neck. Nor is it the same as wearing a yamulke or a hijab. There are laws protecting workers’ rights to wear such things.

This, on the other hand, would be considered correspondence with a client. In such situations, the worker is representing the company, not his or her self. Does this company send out stationary with Jesus fishes printed all over it? When customers call, does the receptionist say “Please hold—and Jesus loves you!”?

No, probably not. That’s because companies want everyone to be their customer. They want to signal that they’re welcoming to ALL. Has it ever occurred to this worker that the person who receives the e-mail might be, oh I don’t know, JEWISH (let alone an atheist)?

Bottom Line #1: If the worker is representing his or her self, then it’s fine, obviously. But if the worker is corresponding on behalf of her employer, then it’s not appropriate—and you can bet that employer would prefer she did not do that.

Bottom Line #2: It’s LEGAL for the employer to ask its employee to refrain from making overt (or even coded) religious expressions when dealing with customers.

Eh, I couldn’t care less. It’s harmless unless or until it becomes a mandatory identifier.

I ignore this type of thing all the time. As long as I’m not required to do it I don’t care. They have their freedom of speech as much as I do. If it doesn’t violate company policy it doesn’t matter.

“no gang signs please”

Reading over the comments again, I have to say another word here for what I think is and is not at issue.

I don’t think the question should be “would this bother you?” Most of us like to think we’re not uptight and easy to get along with. That’s part of why (in my opinion) so many people are saying it’s “no big deal” or “I wouldn’t care.” The religious people are supposed to be the uptight ones, not us. So we try to play it cool.

But ask yourself: If I were running a company, would I want my employees to be including religious signifiers in official company correspondence? (Some commenters seem unclear as to whether or not this was an internal e-mail: the slide makes EXPLICITLY clear that the text was being circulated internally—presumably for editorial suggestions?—and would indeed be sent out to clients later.) Ask yourself: When my employees are communicating with clients on behalf of this company, do I want them making religious statements in their e-mails—or should they represent the company in a religiously neutral way, so as to not put off customers of other faiths, or of no faith? These, I say, are the key questions—not whether or not it “bothers” someone as an individual. That would be a horrible standard: a lot of things might not “bother” people, but they are nonetheless inappropriate. Certain kinds of sexism often don’t “bother” many of us men, but that doesn’t make them OK.

And the fact that this does, indeed, happen a lot in the South doesn’t make it right. The company has a compelling interest in making sure its correspondence with clients is religiously neutral. Period.

I guess I had interpretted this as an inter-office memo. Yeah, if it was something to be sent out to a client, the Jebus fish should be removed, even if it does seem innocuous. It’s inappropriate for one employee to represent his employer to a client in this way–better safe than sorry.

“When my employees are communicating with clients on behalf of this company, do I want them making religious statements in their e-mails—or should they represent the company in a religiously neutral way, so as to not put off customers of other faiths, or of no faith?”

He’s not a company, he’s Dave. If he were writing from officialdepartmentname(at)mycompany.com then I might consider asking him to correct a few things, starting by removing his name from the email and replacing “I” with “We”. Probably the little fish would be one of the last changes I’d make.

The clients should notice they’re talking to a person (dave.jennings(at)mycompany.com), an actual person who visit granny on weekends and goes to White Castle every once in a while. As a person, he has the right to put littles fishes in his email signature.

If someone stop coming to my store because my employee sent him and email with a fish in the signature, then I’m glad to lose that client.

If this is from a religiously neutral company, then I think it is probably inappropriate. It is basically like adding “P.S. I’m a Christian” to the end of the email, except in a special coded way.
The fact that a lot of people on this forum didn’t notice it is probably intentional: a means of tipping off strongly Christian readers, but going under the radar of everyone else.
How should a client who notices, take this message? “If you’re not Christian we don’t want your business?” Or, more likely, “If you’re Christian, too, then maybe I can help you out a little bit. Step up to the front of the line.”
Even if the author meant it innocently, these are potential interpretations, and should probably be avoided.

All it is is an unoffensive symbol that identifies the sender as christian. If he that’s how he wants to be identified, that’s fine. I agree with whoever said it was the same as wearing a fish or cross necklace. There’s no proselytizing in this.

I would ignore it – if that is all it is. I worked for a Bank for a while in a Midwestern town where they were overtly christian. They would pray at all training seminars etc. It was a local bank and the CEO was quite christian I guess. I actually met him at a couple of luncheons and liked him a lot – he didn’t appear to be religious at all maybe it was someone else at the bank or added all the extra “touches”. It was quite offense to me but I never said anything. There was one other women there who would always meet my eyes during the prayers and give me a little laugh. But I needed the job so I kept my mouth shut. I would guess that it is completely legal for them to be like that as long as being another religion doesn’t affect your pay or anything.

Except that the email was content-free, which would make me distrust the sender as being more likely to issue bafflegab than actually get any work done, I saw the symbols < as a tear and a squint which would represent a pained grimace or oncoming right side migraine.

Thanks for the heads up on the other possible meaning.

The law says it is not the same as wearing religious jewelry or attire. (There are instances in which employers have the right to limit that, too, actually.)

The law is very clear on this: Employers have a compelling interest in deciding how employees communicate with clients. That means employers get to set reasonable standards. Asking your employee to refrain from religious symbolism or language when corresponding with clients does NOT encroach upon that employees right to free exercise of religion.

If someone stop coming to my store because my employee sent him and email with a fish in the signature, then I’m glad to lose that client.

Fair enough, I have take you at your word. But most CEOs would prefer not to lose that client. Suppose it’s not a small store; suppose it’s a larger business and the customer is a multi-million dollar account?—say 5% of your annual gross? Would you really be OK losing a major account like that just because your fatuous, annoyingly-religious employee can’t save the fishies for his bumper? At big companies, with a shit-ton of money on the line, people have been fired for less.

It’s not just about grumpy atheists not liking Jesus fishes. There are perfectly sober, sensible reasons why an employer would (and should) discourage this kind of thing. And, my point is, those reasons are not just grounded in smart business practices—they’re also grounded in law.

I’m interested in the question of whether or not this constitutes proselytizing. It’s not proselytizing in the strict sense, but I’ve always felt this sort of stuff is a subtle, watered down form of proselytizing. Maybe it just feels that way.

I’m always amazed by how those who are supposedly the most “spiritual” and ethereal among us—the religious—are so often the most kitschy. The Jesus fishes, the WWJD bracelets, the “purity” rings they put on the fingers of girls as young 10—it’s all so disturbingly kitsch.

I have a strong reaction to ignore. However, after reading these comments, perhaps I may ask what it’s for. It does seem to be exactly like adding “p.s. I’m a Christian” to the end of your emails. Knowing why someone wants to do that probably is worth asking.

I would ignore it. In fact, until it was pointed out, I didn’t even see it. No doubt, it’s probably a tag-line that the originator of the email stuck on at the beginning of making his profile, and probably doesn’t even remember it himself.

I think the key here is “sending it out to clients later”, something I missed at first. Definitely NO religious or political or any message that might be controversial should be put in the signature. in fact, many companies have standards for signatures, and if you are client facing frown on personalization of any sort. You are not speaking for yourself, you are speaking for the company.

Even for internal emails, if he regularly sends messages out to clients, to have a separate sig for clients or to type it out each time seems like it’s asking for trouble: it would only be a matter of time before he accidentally sent his personalized sig to a client.

So I guess the right answer would be other: “tell him not to, then create a standard for everyone to follow from then on.” My company has a standard sig setup with an Exchange Group Rule.

Blessings and christian symbols in e mails anoy me because the people who send them are asuming that I am like them.

Honestly, I didn’t notice it until it was pointed out. I never read my entire e-mail messages…once I get to the “sincerely” parts I just continue on. I would have never noticed that and if I did I wouldn’t have thought it was a jesus fish…just some kind of coding method used for computers or what not. (Yeah, I may be stupid for saying that, but I am just trying to be honest.)

Like someone else said, I would change my sig to this, and wait for him to contact me.

_°°_
/><\ Ramen
/| |\

I’d ignore it. Like other folks, I didn’t even notice it until it was pointed out, and even if I HAD noticed it, I probably wouldn’t have made the connection that < = jesus fish.

If someone wants to put that in their email, that's fine. They've got a right to believe whatever crazy stone-age garbage they want to believe.

If it had come from a government employee's work email, on the other hand, I would (ooh bible vocabulary word incoming) rebuke the hell out (in?) of 'em, since it would immediately smack of gov't promoting religion.

Well, on second thoughts do I agree that this sort of thing should not go in a signature used for company e-mail, since it is simply not professional. However, that is for the guys supervisor to handle, not the recipient of this e-mail. So, unless there is a pattern of obnoxious of harassing behaviour coming from this team leader, I think the recipient should just let it go.

If it were my company, I’d send out a reminder memo that all email signatures from the company address should be formatted as (example) without anything additional – symbols, quotes, etc.

If I were just a worker at the company, a memo to whoever is in charge of PR mentioning that you’ve noticed a lot of differences in signatures and asking about personalization of said signatures might induce the same effect.

Given the use of greater than and less than symbols

> < FSM

or a Computer Science joke

public int god;

where god is real, unless declared as an integer.

I spotted it right away (fairly clever I think) and have to say it’s harmless and can probably be ignored. But if the person sending that in their signature block was a somewhat pushy bible thumper I’d give him a continuous stream of subtle ridicule. Pick on him for bringing his faith out of his room and displaying it in such an un-Jesus like fashion.

That would never fly in my workplace. I work for one of the largest companies in the US so I would suspect many people to complain about something like that. If I put a Scarlet A in any communications even interoffice, I would be written up in a heartbeat.

Simple.

Forward the email to HR, and inquire about the company’s policy towards religious expression within business communications. 99.99% of the time (unless this is a religion-based company), this will result in the HR affirming to you that the company has a religous-neutral policy forbidding such expressions. Also 99.99% of the time, HR will deal with Dave directly and without reference to you, probably with a simple warning to him about religious expression in business communication (in other words, this is not the same as pushing to “get Dave fired” – which would only be the result if Dave already had bigger issues). Continue to forward the emails to HR if Dave doesn’t cease-and-desist.

On the .01% chance that HR writes back to you that religious expression is acceptable in these communications, store a hard-copy of this response, and send an email back to HR thanking them for their clarification, and inquiring if you can put “I don’t believe in God.” in your email signature. To hammer the point home, put “I don’t believe in God” in the signature of your response.

Wait 1 week for an official change in policy.

On the .0001% chance that HR continues to affirm the permissibility of these expressions, you have a personal choice:
1) Take a stance, put “I don’t believe in God” in your email signature (and await the inevitable fallout – but forward HR’s response to all who complain). You’d suddenly become “that guy”, probably experience some level of social alienation (though your HR email leaves you immune to any real ramifications – ACLU would have a field day with any official steps they might take).

2) Cede defeat, leave your email “as is” and start looking for a company having a culture you can feel more integrated with.

I had voted “Ignore it,” but I just now saw it said that the team leader would be “sending it out to clients later.”

If that’s the case, I would definitely complain and ask that it not be sent as a representation of the company.

I’d ignore it. I didn’t even notice it until it was pointed out.

If it were just an email that was going out inside the workplace, I’d ignore it. But because it was mentioned that it’d be sent to clients too, I think it’d be very inappropriate. Not something requiring disciplinary action or anything but at least something worth mentioning to the person. Putting religious symbols in company letters that are going out to clients seems to me to say that it is a Christian organization.

The author’s intent is irrelevant, as is whether or not I personally felt offended by it (I’m not). The fact of the matter is, the inclusion of the Jeebusfish can contribute to a hostile work environment for non-Christians, non-believers, and Christians who do not believe in publicly prostituting advertising their faith.

Unless I were the direct manager of the individual, and the scenario suggests that I am not, I would not confront the person either. Not my job, not in my pay grade. The last thing I want to do is take on an angry religious person whining about persecution all on my own. Let the corporate lawyers handle it. That’s what they’re paid for.

Thus, I would opt to do something else entirely: notify HR and allow them to follow their procedures.

AscII Unicorn signature? =)

http://images9.cafepress.com/product/54457329v6_225x225_Front.jpg

WOW…. that’s all I can say is wow…

So many people ‘don’t care’ and wouldn’t say or do anything about it. Well then, if their little sig doesn’t bother you when will it bother you? When they start leaving tracs on your desk? Or when they stop you in the hallway and ask you if you’ve accepted Jebus yet?

We cannot complain about the ‘big’ issues, when we let the ‘little’ ones slip by. If you would object to be handed a chic trac or being accosted in the hallway and badgered if you’re saved or not bothers you, then this should bother you as well. All it takes for some Christians is a toe in the door. First its a little fishie in their sig and when no one complains about that, they step it up.

Because you can bet your bottom dollar that if an Atheist or a person of another religion had something in their sig on an inter-company memo, that Christian will sure as heck complain about it to HR themselves.

Things will never change for non-Christians in workplaces where they have to deal with prayer before meetings, biblical messages everywhere in a non-religious business if we don’t stand up and say this is not right. I’m here to work, I didn’t come here for church.

Call me militant if you want, but we can’t expect change if we let the ‘its not a big deal’ things slide by. Then what right do we have to complain about anything then?

I did not notice it, but if I had, I certainly would report it. I would print the email, highlight the fish, and give it to my boss. I’d also forward the email to whatever superiors I could and make my case, just politely saying that religious symbols of any kind should not appear in work correspondence.

If my bosses didn’t do anything about it, I’d leave it alone, but at least I’d have a paper trail for any upcoming infractions. For something like this, I would anticipate possible escalations that might end up in preaching at work, handing out Jesus pamphlets at work, workplace praying, etc., so I’d just treat this like any other workplace issue and document, document, document.

I work in an environment with several religious people and have had to ask my bosses to intervene when these folks have made copies of religious handouts on my office copy machine, or when there have been prayer meetings during work time, etc. So I think it’s worth stopping this kind of stuff right away and reminding everyone that work just isn’t the place.

If this memo had been written by a Pagan and they had a Pagan symbol in their sig or if they went around saying to people, ‘May the Goddess Mother Bless you’ then you can sure bet the Christians that work there will demand that it be stopped the very first time and maybe even demand the person be fired.

A lot of Christians want tolerance for their beliefs, but give very little to others in return. To me the issue with the fish is about respect, people should have respect for their co-workers. If this is not a specifically religion orientated business then it has no place being there out of respect for co-workers that are not religious or not of the same religion.

The only thing that made me think it needed a mention was the idea that it would go out to clients. Then a number of comments have demonstrated that the angle brackets are not a great idea anyway, for entirely practical reasons.

I’d warn them that the binary code for those characters contains the binary code for six in each one (110) and it appears 3 times and is really a code for satan, not jesus.

I’d be tempted to reply with this added.

<
..?..?…