Opinions differ on spirituality at the office
To the editor: I have another perspective to offer your readers to contrast with that presented by Tom Crum of Chattanooga in the April 1997 issue of Employee Health and Fitness. ("Spirituality Can Help Ease Job-Related Stress," p. 39.) My experience in a variety of corporate settings in British Columbia conducting "secular spirituality" (a deliberate oxymoron) workshops leads me to conclusions much at variance with Crum’s remarks. Furthermore, my own perspectives on wellness based on two decades of writing about and otherwise promoting the concept full time have led to a very different set of conclusions from those advanced by Crum.
For those who might wish to introduce the spirituality dimension of wellness with companies and other institutional settings as part of health promotion, my advice is, don’t do it! Not everyone shares Crum’s strong belief in a personal god and other devotions to fundamentalist Christianity. How many companies would want to allow wellness initiatives to be used as forums for the promotion of Christian or other religious doctrines? What response would you anticipate from workers who prefer rational, science-based, secular perspectives when seeking emotional support or pondering the larger questions?
Such programs could prove divisive
Helping employees achieve spiritual wellness the Tom Crum way may generate some excellent debates but it could also incite an industrial version of the Crusades. My bet is that it would generate religious/secular divides that would in no way ease job-related stress, and it would lead to setbacks for further health promotion programming.
Personally, I believe that some job-related stress can be traced to varied forms of guilt-ridden, dysfunctional, irrational, and magical thinking promoted under the banner of spirituality. For specifics on this point of view, have a look at psychiatrist Wendall Waters’ book titled Deadly Doctrine: Health, Illness and Christian God-Talk (Prometheus, 1992).
The very terms "spirit" and "spirituality" are theological words. I recommend and use "a search for meaning" and similar phrases that are more inclusive and completely free of religious connotations. Vital issues of consequence and grounding in the larger scheme of things can be addressed quite nicely while staying open to consent with a single mindset.
Again, my own tendency is to entertain the possibility that there may be no larger scheme of things.
We separate church and state in government, and I believe we should do likewise in the workplace. Furthermore, I hope we can continue to do so in health promotion.
Donald B. Ardell, PhD, Publisher
TheArdell Wellness Report
9901 Lake Georgia Drive
Orlando, FL 32817
(407) 657-2846
[Editors Note: What do you think? As is evident from this letter, the subject of religion and spirituality in the workplace can provoke strong feelings. How should spirituality be addressed in the workplace? Should it be addressed at all? We’d like to hear your views on this and other "hot" topics in the wellness field. Employee Health & Fitness wants to serve as your "Chat Room" where you can share and debate ideas with your colleagues across the country.
Please address your comments to: The Editor, Employee Health & Fitness, American Health Consultants, P.O. Box 740065, Atlanta, GA 30374.]
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content