Keeping The Faith While At Work

(CBS)  It's not often that employees are sanctioned to express their religious beliefs in their workplaces. In fact, except for the annual Christmas party, most businesses don't even acknowledge that workers may practice a religion in their off-hours.

But a new trend is springing up — workplaces where employees are encouraged to mingle their professional and spiritual lives.

According to "The Early Show's" Debbye Turner, one of the pioneers in this is the Ford Motor Company. Ford has a meditation room, open for any faith group to use. It's part of a company-sponsored program that encourages employees to express their beliefs and learn about other faiths. It's called FIN, or Ford Interfaith Network. The mailing list for Ford employees interested in the program is already 5,000 strong.

For instance, Rashid Taufiq, a Ford employee who is a devout Muslim, regularly joins others in the meditation room for their daily afternoon prayers.

"It reduces stress for one thing," he explained. "And it gives you a sense of satisfaction and trust in your company that your company has really gone out of the way to make this arrangement for you."

His colleague, Vijay Patel, who practices Hinduism, feels that "FIN has, you know, raised our awareness that we are all, you know, united at the spiritual level. I mean, parts are different. But the spirituality is there."

And another FIN participant, Karen Jirik, told Turner that the exposure to other cultures has been educational for her. "I previously knew nothing about the Chinese new year. Now, I know that it has a lot in common with Judaism and the new year, Rosh Hashannah."

The director of Human Resources for Ford, Patty Flaherty, is happy with the program's results.

"If everyone can bring all of themselves into the workplace and leverage the best of themselves, and feel appreciated and respected for all who they are, then you get the best from your employees," she said.

Ford is by no means alone in allowing faith at work. A host of other Fortune 500 companies have adopted faith-friendly policies. Tyson Chicken, for instance, employs 128 chaplains to address the spiritual needs of its workers.

Companies that have some recognition of the spiritual side of life say that they tend to have employees who have greater loyalty, lower absenteeism and higher creativity.

Dr. David Miller, author of "God at Work" and executive director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, says the issue of religion in the workplace is 100 years old, but social upheaval like 9/11 and corporate downsizing has spurned an increase receptivity.

A number of forces — technology, change, faster pace, more time at work, which began really to ratchet up a notch in the late 1980s — are possible contributing factors.

Miller and others are quick to point out that these companies are becoming faith-friendly, not faith-based, which is an important distinction, especially to critics of the movement, who are watching closely to make sure that one religion is not promoted above another.

Jeremy Gunn of the American Civil Liberties Union believes this new movement may spawn an increase in religious discrimination suits. The problem, he said, "becomes when that expression becomes harassment — or making the workplace uncomfortable for other people."

Miller also predicts problems down the line. "I think there'll be more litigation and more mistakes if people don't tend to the question and create constructive, healthy policies around the question of being faith friendly," he said.