Working with Mormons
I live in Utah, so there's not much I can do to get away from Mormons at work.
Somehow I've lucked out, at least within my own group.
My supervisor is LDS only because he was baptized. I think he quit during his seminary years. He has a lot of baggage. He's leaving at the end of the month, which is actually a good thing despite the direction of this article.
One coworker is only in my store two days a week (as she travels to two stores every week, ours is the one she spends less time in), and he has her own baggage, as I recently learned. Very direct reason for not being part of the church, but too serious for me to talk about it.
A third coworker works in the store just as much as I do. She's relatively new. I know she's not active, and does not follow the restrictions that the church places on people. I think her parents are LDS, though they are originally from Europe (as in, not from Utah). She has issues, but nothing like the others or myself.
The last coworker in our group is a moderate True Believing Mormon. He's from Mexico City, and while his parents are LDS, he was brought up in a different culture and social scenario. I know he was naughty in his youth, at least before his mission, and has been a good boy since. He doesn't know anything about my exodus from the church.
There are dozens of people in my work environment, not of my work group, who are LDS. I would venture that most if not all of them are. There's even a creepy future "adult singles ward" guy who knows the church owns Coca-cola because he claims to have seen the church's financial statements. As if the church would let any one peon, non-employee, 20-something, non-royalty, conspiracy-theory member see their financials.
The problem I have, which is the purpose of this article, is that I can't stand it. A guy recently got married in the temple, but never went on a mission. He was in the store tonight and seemed to go off into la-la land when I asked him how the wedding went (knowing full-well about the temple - the reason I asked!). It wasn't good, great, or horrible. It was... "um... ok."
I'm surrounded by the superficial existences of others who believe, with whatever percentage of their being required to dupe them into believing, that the church is true no matter what. They don't know about Joseph Smith's dozens of wives. They don't know that Smith was an egotistical attention seeker with a complicated god complex who felt the world should bow at his feet (read about his many exploits into combining church and state as well as his sense of entitlement and self-importance). They don't know anything, and yet they profess to know everything.
It's hard working with Mormons. I wonder if I was just like these people during those years I was the only Mormon in my workplace. Actually, I know I wasn't, at least outwardly. I even told them all I voted for Gore, which was probably harder on that all-Republican group than the fact that I was LDS.
It's going to be interesting working among Mormons - especially now that I'm not one of them.
Eric
New Name Dan
Somehow I've lucked out, at least within my own group.
My supervisor is LDS only because he was baptized. I think he quit during his seminary years. He has a lot of baggage. He's leaving at the end of the month, which is actually a good thing despite the direction of this article.
One coworker is only in my store two days a week (as she travels to two stores every week, ours is the one she spends less time in), and he has her own baggage, as I recently learned. Very direct reason for not being part of the church, but too serious for me to talk about it.
A third coworker works in the store just as much as I do. She's relatively new. I know she's not active, and does not follow the restrictions that the church places on people. I think her parents are LDS, though they are originally from Europe (as in, not from Utah). She has issues, but nothing like the others or myself.
The last coworker in our group is a moderate True Believing Mormon. He's from Mexico City, and while his parents are LDS, he was brought up in a different culture and social scenario. I know he was naughty in his youth, at least before his mission, and has been a good boy since. He doesn't know anything about my exodus from the church.
There are dozens of people in my work environment, not of my work group, who are LDS. I would venture that most if not all of them are. There's even a creepy future "adult singles ward" guy who knows the church owns Coca-cola because he claims to have seen the church's financial statements. As if the church would let any one peon, non-employee, 20-something, non-royalty, conspiracy-theory member see their financials.
The problem I have, which is the purpose of this article, is that I can't stand it. A guy recently got married in the temple, but never went on a mission. He was in the store tonight and seemed to go off into la-la land when I asked him how the wedding went (knowing full-well about the temple - the reason I asked!). It wasn't good, great, or horrible. It was... "um... ok."
I'm surrounded by the superficial existences of others who believe, with whatever percentage of their being required to dupe them into believing, that the church is true no matter what. They don't know about Joseph Smith's dozens of wives. They don't know that Smith was an egotistical attention seeker with a complicated god complex who felt the world should bow at his feet (read about his many exploits into combining church and state as well as his sense of entitlement and self-importance). They don't know anything, and yet they profess to know everything.
It's hard working with Mormons. I wonder if I was just like these people during those years I was the only Mormon in my workplace. Actually, I know I wasn't, at least outwardly. I even told them all I voted for Gore, which was probably harder on that all-Republican group than the fact that I was LDS.
It's going to be interesting working among Mormons - especially now that I'm not one of them.
Eric
New Name Dan
posted by Eric at 12:14 AM
1 Comments:
The joys of being the odd man out. In a way, it's no different than what gay guys experience when they come out at work. There's that tell-tale or even sly look or outright disbelief that you could be... different!
When I lived in Utah from my teens through late 20's, I had my share of run-ins with the brethren, but one encounter was usually enough for them. One of my favorite exchanges was like this:
Slightly smug RM: "So you're gay, huh? How's that working for you?"
Two second pause for me and deadpan expression: "So you're slow, nosey and not my type. How's that working for you?"
Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be Olivia Newton John (in Xanadu), but reality set in after the 20th or so viewing: I wasn't female, I couldn't sing like a diva, and that I better deal with what I was who and what I had (anatomically speaking). This really changed my outlook - I was me, not a roller-skating diva, and that was enough. More than enough for most of the brethren.
Pardon me while I post this on my own damn blog :)
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