Worker fired after posting picture of Jesus*

Says manager told him 'God' not allowed on cubicle walls

Posted: April 21, 2007

A call center employee says he has been dismissed from his job for
posting an artist's rendition of the crucifixion during Easter week,
even though other employees were allowed to post pictures and art as
they chose in their cubicles.

Chris Romansky, a former employee of Barclays, said that he was told
there had been a complaint about the picture he put up to remind himself
of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, a foundational belief in Christianity.

A company spokeswoman, Donna Sokolsky, said that the job termination
"had nothing to do with anything religious whatsoever." But she said she
was not permitted by human resources to know "more beyond that."

"What I CAN tell you is that Barclays has very strict policies around
nondescrimination (sic), especially religious. I cannot speak for this
particular individual's situation but I know that there was no religious
descrimination. I do not think you have a story here."

She followed up several days later with a formal, unattributed
statement, "We do not discriminate or take any action based on religious
affiliation."

Barclays PLC, according to Sokolsky, is a large global financial service
provider, offering banking, investment banking and investment management
services. It operates in more than 60 countries and has 110,500
employees worldwide.

Romansky said that his dismissal was effective April 13, and he has
contacted state labor regulators about filing a complaint.

"We're actually allowed to hang up pictures on our cubes. I had a
picture of my wife, and there's a cross in the background but that
didn't seem to bother anybody," he said. He also had posted a couple of
Internet clippings, but those generated no response either.

Then during the Easter season, he said, "I hung a picture of the
crucifixion, actually it was before Easter. It was of the crucifixion of
Jesus and it showed the Resurrection and it said 'Happy Easter.'"

"I came in on the following Tuesday, and it was face down on my desk, so
I put it back up," he said. Then a team manager came and told him there
had been a complaint that it was "offensive" and he had to take it back
down.

The manager called him into her office. "She told me people were
offended, and she told me anything with Jesus and God can't be up,"
Romansky said.

The manager told him to leave the building. "She took copies of the
pictures," he said.

Several conversations with managers and the human resources department
followed, Romansky said.

"She [the manager] then called me and told me they're going to have to
let me go," he said. He said he'd never even been "corrected" before by
the company, and she responded that he was being dismissed for
insubordination.

"I said I want [copies of] all the corrective actions. I want an
explanation," he said.

He said the "complaint" about his Easter picture may have been in
retaliation, because earlier he had complained about the crudity of the
conversation in the office.

"I feel I was singled out," he said.