“merry christmas” or “season’s greetings” - which one is more inclusive?
So, "Merry Xmas" or "Seasons Greetings": what is the true inclusive way to celebrate this time?
It’s a festive season in a full swing and a season of confusion as well: what one should do or say to be inclusive?
In many organizations religious diversity is noticed and discussed only around December and, in my opinion, that creates a lot of challenges and doesn’t address the question of religious diversity properly.
Religion often overlaps with other parts of identity, it affects people’s professional lives: in their values, their diet, the way the groom and dress, social expectations…and of course – the holiday time - all around the year.
In my opinion “Season’s Greetings” is not the most effective approach for acknowledging and fostering inclusivity regarding religious diversity within an organization and based on my conversations with religious individuals from different organizations - it doesn’t really create the feeling of belonging.
To truly make people feel seen in their religious identity, I’d advice the organisations to consider the following steps:
🔹 Get curious:
Take the initiative to understand the religious diversity within the workplace: "What would it mean to include a holiday that is important to you?"
🔹Incorporate religious holidays
Integrate religious holidays that are important for employees into DEI calendar throughout the year.
🔹Provide flexibility
Introduce floating holidays, allowing employees the flexibility to observe personal or cultural events that hold significance to them.
🔹Educate and raise awareness
Promote understanding by educating employees about various religious holidays that are celebrated within the organization.
In my opinion, secularizing the message doesn’t make it inclusive.
Instead, it creates a false feeling of inclusion while omitting diversity and representation.
I think what we need is to get to “be brave to be bad at something new” and get curious about what people are actually celebrating and respond to the needs that are related to that. This is, to me, the way to create a true feeling of belonging.
What is your opinion and approach to it?
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