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<p>This week on Reddit&#39;s perennially popular sub <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/">AmItheAsshole</a>, a man asked if he&#39;s wrong for &#39;requesting prayer breaks&#39; at work. The majority of his colleagues practice a religion that requires them to pray multiple times per day, necessitating breaks throughout work hours. This time amounts to an additional half-hour they&#39;re compensated for. Though he&#39;s an atheist, he asked his boss for time to meditate and she - perhaps fearing legal retribution - acquiesced. It&#39;s caused tension in the office. Now he wants to know: is he the @sshole here?</p><blockquote> <p>I&rsquo;m an atheist who works in an international company in a very busy city.</p> <p>I have a lot of coworkers who come from a certain religious background that requires them to pray multiple times a day. I would say 90% of my coworkers share this faith and maybe 70-80% of them take the time out to go pray everyday.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>It&#39;s not relevant, but: the religion is Islam I assume.</p><blockquote> <p>They get to leave the office 2 or 3 times in a day for 10 mins a piece for prayer and they get paid the same, don&rsquo;t need to take time out of their lunch, etc.</p> <p>I used to resent this and asked my boss who belongs to that faith why they were essentially having an extra paid 30 min break a day for doing the same work I do. She couldn&rsquo;t give me a response other than religious considerations have to be made.</p> </blockquote><p>Taking action based on resentment isn&#39;t always healthy, but I see his point.</p><blockquote> <p>Even though I&rsquo;m a known atheist I decided I too wanted some time to meditate everyday. I told my manager I needed the same time as my coworkers and told her it was very important to me. She initially said no, and then I got a hastily written email saying of course I was welcome to take that time to meditate the same day. She&rsquo;d obviously checked with HR and covered her ass.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>His boss didn&#39;t want to violate HR regulations, so she honored his request.</p><blockquote> <p>For the last six months I&rsquo;ve been having my 30 mins &lsquo;meditating&rsquo; out in our company garden everyday. This has caused a slight issue because other non religious people are starting to ask if they too can have &lsquo;meditative time&rsquo; and it&rsquo;s causing friction but imo either everyone should be able to have this or no one should.</p> </blockquote><p>One question: is he really meditating? Because that&#39;s part of religious practice for several faiths including Buddhism - and it&#39;s beneficial regardless. Sounds like he&#39;s just killing time in the garden, though.</p><blockquote> <p>I recently told a friend this story and she reacted negatively- she said that I was being rude and &lsquo;ruining it&rsquo; for everyone else and that at Xmas time my coworkers usually go over and beyond to fill in holiday hours so the rest of us can enjoy our holidays and that the same courtesy should be extended to them. I told her I&rsquo;m not hurting anybody or taking their prayer times away from them, simply enjoying that privilege myself.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>My honest-to-God takeaway from this scenario is that I&#39;m grateful to not work in an office. As promised, Redditors weighed in. The conclusion drawn? He&#39;s NTA.</p><blockquote> <p>NTA I think meditation in this situation is the non-religious equivalent to praying, a moment with yourself to collect your thoughts. It&rsquo;s healthy for a productive work environment and you should be given the same rights as your coworkers.</p> </blockquote><p>-bassbby12</p><blockquote> <p>NTA - not at all. I would actively encourage it to others. Say yes, the company is allowing you 30 minutes to express your religion in the workplace. My religion is self-mediation and body-mind focused. So for my 30 I relax and try to work on my internal stresses. This is a win-win. You just &ldquo;won&rdquo; everyone 30 paid minutes.</p> </blockquote><p>-Bernardhopkins</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>NTA. I had a friend who became a &quot;smoker&quot; because the company allowed smokers to walk out and take a 5 minute smoke break every hour or so in addition to their regular break. They did not allow non-smokers this break. He&#39;d just walk out with the actual smokers and just stand around.</p> </blockquote><p>-Reggie_Barclay</p><blockquote> <p>NTA.</p> <p>it&#39;s completely reasonable to take a few short breaks thorughout the day.</p> <p>if you&#39;d called them &quot;prayer breaks&quot; you&#39;d be the asshole, but since you told them honestly what you are using the breaks for, you&#39;re fine.</p> </blockquote><p>-Weeshful</p><p>And a dissenting opinion for good measure:</p><blockquote> <p>YTA. I&#39;m an atheist as well but to each their own. Who cares if they get an extra break. I view this as the same thing as smokers taking smoke breaks, do you want prayer and smoke breaks? If a nursing mother gets an extra break to pump do you also want a nursing break?</p> <p>Do your thing let them do theirs. Stop being petty.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>-jtahgs</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Man asks if he's wrong for taking 'prayer breaks' at work even though he's not religious.

This week on Reddit&#39;s perennially popular sub AmItheAsshole, a man asked if he&#39;s wrong for &#39;requesting prayer breaks&#39; at work. The majority of his colleagues practice a religion that requires them to pray multiple times per day, necessitating breaks throughout work hours. This time amounts to an additional half-hour they&#39;re compensated for. Though he&#39;s an atheist, he asked his boss for time to meditate and she - perhaps fearing legal retribution - acquiesced. It&#39;s caused tension in the office. Now he wants to know: is he the @sshole here? I&rsquo;m an atheist who works in an international company in a very busy city. I have a lot of coworkers who come from a certain religious background that requires them to pray multiple times a day. I would say 90% of my coworkers share this faith and maybe 70-80% of them take the time out to go pray everyday. It&#39;s not relevant, but: the religion is Islam I assume. They get to leave the office 2 or 3 times in a day for 10 mins a piece for prayer and they get paid the same, don&rsquo;t need to take time out of their lunch, etc. I used to resent this and asked my boss who belongs to that faith why they were essentially having an extra paid 30 min break a day for doing the same work I do. She couldn&rsquo;t give me a response other than religious considerations have to be made. Taking action based on resentment isn&#39;t always healthy, but I see his point. Even though I&rsquo;m a known atheist I decided I too wanted some time to meditate everyday. I told my manager I needed the same time as my coworkers and told her it was very important to me. She initially said no, and then I got a hastily written email saying of course I was welcome to take that time to meditate the same day. She&rsquo;d obviously checked with HR and covered her ass. His boss didn&#39;t want to violate HR regulations, so she honored his request. For the last six months I&rsquo;ve been having my 30 mins &lsquo;meditating&rsquo; out in our company garden everyday. This has caused a slight issue because other non religious people are starting to ask if they too can have &lsquo;meditative time&rsquo; and it&rsquo;s causing friction but imo either everyone should be able to have this or no one should. One question: is he really meditating? Because that&#39;s part of religious practice for several faiths including Buddhism - and it&#39;s beneficial regardless. Sounds like he&#39;s just killing time in the garden, though. I recently told a friend this story and she reacted negatively- she said that I was being rude and &lsquo;ruining it&rsquo; for everyone else and that at Xmas time my coworkers usually go over and beyond to fill in holiday hours so the rest of us can enjoy our holidays and that the same courtesy should be extended to them. I told her I&rsquo;m not hurting anybody or taking their prayer times away from them, simply enjoying that privilege myself. My honest-to-God takeaway from this scenario is that I&#39;m grateful to not work in an office. As promised, Redditors weighed in. The conclusion drawn? He&#39;s NTA. NTA I think meditation in this situation is the non-religious equivalent to praying, a moment with yourself to collect your thoughts. It&rsquo;s healthy for a productive work environment and you should be given the same rights as your coworkers. -bassbby12 NTA - not at all. I would actively encourage it to others. Say yes, the company is allowing you 30 minutes to express your religion in the workplace. My religion is self-mediation and body-mind focused. So for my 30 I relax and try to work on my internal stresses. This is a win-win. You just &ldquo;won&rdquo; everyone 30 paid minutes. -Bernardhopkins NTA. I had a friend who became a &quot;smoker&quot; because the company allowed smokers to walk out and take a 5 minute smoke break every hour or so in addition to their regular break. They did not allow non-smokers this break. He&#39;d just walk out with the actual smokers and just stand around. -Reggie_Barclay NTA. it&#39;s completely reasonable to take a few short breaks thorughout the day. if you&#39;d called them &quot;prayer breaks&quot; you&#39;d be the asshole, but since you told them honestly what you are using the breaks for, you&#39;re fine. -WeeshfulAnd a dissenting opinion for good measure: YTA. I&#39;m an atheist as well but to each their own. Who cares if they get an extra break. I view this as the same thing as smokers taking smoke breaks, do you want prayer and smoke breaks? If a nursing mother gets an extra break to pump do you also want a nursing break? Do your thing let them do theirs. Stop being petty. -jtahgs

This week on Reddit&#39;s perennially popular sub AmItheAsshole, a man asked if he&#39;s wrong for &#39;requesting prayer breaks&#39; at work. The majority of his colleagues practice a religion that requires them to pray multiple times per...