Lately, I've been thinking that the modern US workplace is basically hell on earth. Maybe it is because we work longer and longer hours earning shareholder value for other people and shrinking paychecks for ourselves. Or maybe it is the virtual essence of isolation created when technology allows us to work from any port in a storm.

We can't have the ritual water cooler discussions about last night's TV show or a ball game because there is NO water cooler or other communal gathering. And so what tends to happen is after days and nights of multiple back-to-back conference calls, 1,000-word e-mails and the dreaded "offline" conversations is not only mental exhaustion but a bruised and battered spirit.

Enter God. In past economic realities, religion was basically a weekend-only issue even for those who strive to live their faiths every minute of every day. But now, there are no weekends because we work, whether by choice or by fear, all the time. The cell phone rings at soccer games, the Blackberry buzzes during family time, and no one has a minute of peace. So this overlap works both ways as the lines demarcating formal work time and formal worship time blur.

Suddenly we can find ourselves having a workplace conversation we would really rather not when a co-worker pipes up to invoke his or her personal message of faith, convinced that this nugget of enlightenment will enrich the business problem at hand. While the rest of the group sits back in stunned silence or polite boredom, the co-worker blithely shares a lesson from his or her religious teachings, inviting us to see its wisdom and applicability.

What would Jesus do? Or Buddha, or Mary Baker Eddy, or L. Ron Hubbard? Please put the Bible and the Koran down. I, for one, would rather not know.

The First Amendment provides us two vital religious freedoms: the right to practice any religion and the right to be free from a government-imposed religion. We as individuals enjoy these Constitutional rights while wars rage around the world seeking liberties or insurrections under the guidance of the divine.

In the private sector, state and federal civil rights laws govern the issue of church and state in the workplace. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion. This includes hiring, firing and other terms and conditions of employment. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, "employers cannot schedule examinations or other selection activities in conflict with a current or perspective employee's religious needs, inquire about an applicant's future availability at certain times, maintain a restrictive dress code or refuse to allow observance of a Sabbath or a religious holiday, unless the employer can prove not doing so would cause an undue hardship."

Now, that "undue hardship" definition can be a bit squishy. Religious and civil rights activists would like to see more robust guidance around this issue to protect employees from inflexible employers. And religious discrimination cannot be tolerated in any work environment any more than any other bias. Management must accommodate and respect the religious beliefs of all of its workers, and strive to promote a culture that provides this layer of support. Given the post-Sept. 11 rise in workplace discrimination issues for employees of Middle East descent, there is still much to do on this front.

BUT, and this is a big but, this balance must also accommodate the rights of workers to just say no. Management must respond when employees use the workplace to express their faith in continually inappropriate ways that would make co-workers uncomfortable.

In researching this column, I ran across this bit of advice from a human resources website: Managers, as a way to raise consciousness, should invite employees to meet in small groups on company time to share thoughts about religion as a way to learn about different faiths and build teams.

Ick. No sharing, please. This makes me cringe. A joyful sense of ecumenical community is not the responsibility of workplace management. A tolerant respect for the rights of all individuals is. And there are far, far more valuable ways to increase performance and promote common goals while honoring the overall diversity of the workforce than to link these efforts to a communal sense of religion.

Call me an old-fashioned girl, but when it comes to God in the workplace, my mantra is: Don't ask. Don't tell.