Source: The Times-Picayune
On April 16, 2000, The Times-Picayune published an article about the accommodation of religious practice in the workplace. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, "large companies - those with more than 250 employees - are more likely to allow flexible scheduling, give time for observances, and ease up on dress and appearance codes." Laila Jackson, an employee of PTT Telekom in Winter Park, Florida, is allowed to take the prayer breaks necessary to observe her Muslim faith. She goes to a darkened part of the office to kneel in prayer. Barbara Gardner, a Seventh-Day Adventist from Altamonte Springs, FL, is an employee of the U.S. Postal Service who has encountered problems with taking off from work during the Sabbath, Friday night to Saturday night. Because of a schedule change, Gardner was required to work on the Sabbath. For six months, she called every week to say she wouldn't be at work. The Postal Service charged her absent without leave and didn't pay her for those days. She has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but has remained on the job: "You don't run from your problems. And I was also standing up for my church." Jeff Bander, an Orthodox Jew from, central Florida, left his job at BellSouth Advertising and Publishing Corp. because he was told that he would have to "lose the beard". Bander currently has a religious discrimination lawsuit against BellSouth. His new employer is more accommodating; on Fridays his boss will often urge him to leave, saying (y)ou've gotta get home, it's Shabbos (Sabbath)."