Shaina Zafar woke up around 4:50 a.m. in New York City, cooked some eggs and ate them with a bagel and coconut water before imsak, a time to stop eating and drinking. She prayed and set her intentions for the day before the sun rose. Zafar, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of JUV Consulting, went back to sleep before waking again for her work calls around 8 a.m. She had stayed up until midnight to catch up on some work after the nightly prayer.
This year, Ramadan began the evening of March 22 or March 23, depending on Muslims’ geographic location and sect. It will conclude with Eid al-Fitr, the festival and celebration at the end of April that includes feasts, gift-giving and prayers. This year, Eid is expected to fall on April 21 or April 22 in North America, depending on the first sighting of the new crescent moon locally.
Reasonable accommodations and undue hardships are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but in general, courts have sided with employees who are denied accommodations, according to Muslim Advocates, a national civil-rights group representing American Muslim communities. Weighing undue hardships would involve considering the cost of the accommodations, as well as their potential to put workplace efficiency or safety at risk or infringe on other employees’ rights, the group said in a fact sheet.
Jaferi said she once overheard a manager telling a Muslim employee on the phone that they would not accommodate the employee’s sleeping schedule. While she didn’t say anything at that moment, she said she felt upset on the employee’s behalf. — Thamina Jaferi, senior equity, diversity and inclusion consultant at Turner Consulting Group For younger workers transitioning from school to work, Ramadan might be more taxing because of the shift from sitting in lectures to actively participating in meetings, Zafar said. And that’s where the flexibility of working from home can help.
With Eid approaching, allowing workers the flexibility to take days off is essential, Jaferi said. The festival is celebrated from one to three days, depending on the country and the community. Because Islam uses a lunar calendar, the dates vary by year and geographic location. Muslim employees might not know the exact days they need off ahead of time, she added.
‘A really isolating experience’ Still, many Muslim employees face psychological barriers to seeking workplace accommodations, experts said. Being Muslim at work can be a lonely experience: Muslims account for only about 1% of the U.S. population, by some estimates, despite making up a quarter of the global population.