I've worked here for 8 years and not once have I received a "Merry Christmas!" email. All company messaging around Christmas is watered down to "Happy Holidays" so as not to offend everyone.
I'm not a Christian fwiw but this pisses me off.
I quickly typed a response that said, "Thank you, and I look forward to receiving a Merry Christmas email later this year!", but at least for now I haven't sent it.
I'm just sick and fucking tired of everything Christian being erased from society, while non-Christian holidays are promoted and celebrated by name.
Send the email response or nah?
It depends: do you need the job? Are you indispensable at your position? Not to say they'll fire you for sending it, but unless you're extremely hard to replace you might get mentally filed on the "not a team player" list that might come into play the next time layoff season arrives.
I've sent responses like this before, and while it makes you feel good it doesn't really accomplish anything. The best outcome I ever had was:
You'd be better served killing whatever sense of loyalty you may have to your employer and doing exactly what your company's execs do: use company resources to maximize your own personal gain at the expense of the company's well-being.
Is that not just how being employed works?
Everywhere I've ever worked has done their best to get the most work from me while paying me as little as they could, to the point of causing burnout. I just assumed that the whole employment game was based on who could screw the other the hardest without actually triggering a lawsuit.
Are you saying there are jobs that don't work like that?
Companies try to make you work harder out of a sense of loyalty. Which can be appropriate if there is in fact reciprocal loyalty. Rare, but it does happen. However it's usually bullshit, but the bullshit does work on some people.
I'm assuming based on OP being at the same company for 8 years (which is much higher than average) and caring enough about this to post about it that he is more likely than not to be in the "has loyalty" camp. If that's the case he should take this as a sign that the company does not have loyalty to him and act accordingly.
Or he has limited options for alternate employment, in which case upsetting the applecart is plain and simple a bad idea.
Zero chance I get fired for it. We have several acquisitions in the pipeline that I'm managing and trying to replace me right now would be a disaster.
But I'm leaning towards not saying anything, at least not right now. Like you said, it wouldn't really accomplish anything. They won't start wishing people Merry Christmas or anything.
Instead of saying something right now, start documenting things and look for a way to set them up for a lawsuit. Any kind of lawsuit. Then when it's time to leave, sue them on the way out, even if it's over some petty nonsense that has nothing to do with this.