Inclusion, or not?

I got this e-mail from Human Resources about a special new "multicultural calendar" listing selected religious observances, cultural celebrations and holidays. The e-mail says, in part: "Please take these special observances into consideration when scheduling meetings and events, particularly those days that have fasting or other observances highlighted. Acknowledging and respecting these events promotes greater knowledge of multiculturalism and diversity and is a foundation to inclusion." The calendar highlights dates from Bahai, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.

I think this is silly. I'm scheduling a meeting, I'm supposed to ask all participants what their religion is before I select a date, so I can avoid scheduling it on one of these special days? Sorry, I'm not doing that. I think asking somebody their religion and seeing if they will be at work on October 20, which is Birth of the Bab for the Bahai religion could possibly be more offensive than not asking. They can just tell me they are not here that day, I don't need to know why, nor do I really care.

Oh, but it is not just religious observances, we also have notes on there about Black History Month, Women's History Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month and National Native American Month.

Am I supposed to ask people their sexual preference? I see on this calendar that October 11th is National Coming Out Day. If I schedule a meeting for October 11th, should I be concerned that I may inadvertantly not show proper acknowledgement and respect for them?

I'm sure they have left someone out. Just how inclusive is this, really? Why don't we have a Caucasian Anglo-Saxon Eastern European Immigrant History month? How about Regular Ordinary Heterosexual month? And I am sure that those practicing Paganism must be offended because there is nothing about them on there, although dates such as solstices are mentioned, there is nothing about their needing to take work off on those days.

Horse puckey.

How about this instead. These are the days work is open. These are the days work is closed. You don't want to come to work on a certain day that work is open due to religious or other personal reasons, fine. The vacation system works the same for everybody.

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