Celebrating Holidays in the Office

Holidays are a great time to introduce your employees to all the different traditions and holidays that are celebrated worldwide. It is generally recommended that leadership doesn’t ask their employees to keep their religious holiday observances separate from work. It has been found that the best way to approach these types of holidays is to simply make sure that nobody feels excluded or forced to participate in any workplace festivities. Diversity should be celebrated within the workplace so that all employees feel welcome and not just a select few.

The Civil Right Act of 1964 states that employers cannot discriminate based on religion and must “reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious practices”. With this statute, employees cannot be fired if their religion forbids them from working on the Sabbath. Employers have found a variety of ways to celebrate holidays and still allow for adherence to the rules set forth by the Civil Right Act. Some of these methods have been giving major Christian and Jewish holidays off and attempting to include major Muslim holidays as well. Other employers may give just Christmas as a day off but offer floating holidays as part of the employee benefits package that employees can use for other religious holidays.

Holiday Parties
Most HR professionals have said that their organizations have an end-of-year/holiday party that’s open to all employees. They do this to be sensitive to people’s religions. Some steps to take when planning a holiday party at the office would include things like making the part nondenominational, making the attendance of these parties voluntary, and placing those of different religions on the party-planning committee.

Try to be inclusive of all holidays that are celebrated within your office and simply have fun with it! There’s no reason that you can’t celebrate holidays throughout the year and make them inclusive for everyone. This can help offer a boost to workplace morale and make your employees feel that they matter as individuals and not just a workforce.