Why You Should Take the Onionhead Religion Seriously

Some employers emphasize neutral values such as teamwork. Liberal-leaning firms accentuate diversity and multi-culturalism. Conservative employers stress religious values (reflected in rules about attire, drinking, cursing, or display of religious symbols at work). Increasingly, however, employers want their employees to share their world-view, which may be grounded in religion.

Last week, a federal jury in Brooklyn ordered a health insurance company to pay $5.1 million to 10 employees who said they were forced to follow the practices of an obscure religious belief system called “Onionhead.”

Linda “Denali” Jordan was a senior manager who was given the power to fire employees at United Health Plans. She is an adherent of Onionhead, which is also called Harnessing Happiness.

Under her direction, UHP employees were required to thank God for their employment, routinely tell each other “I love you,” and participate in prayer circles and meditation. And each day, they were asked to select cards containing "universal truths" and contemplate their meaning.

One of the workers was fired in 2012 for refusing to participate in Onionhead rituals. Others put up with a work culture that referred to God, Satan and “divine destinies,” and religious iconography, in Onionhead literature. Jordan, while wearing her senior management hat, referred to herself as a “spiritual adviser.”

The Brooklyn jury found that Onionhead was used as a religion in this workplace, and its value system was also used to discriminate against employees on the basis of their faiths (or lack thereof). 

Soon, the Supreme Court will decide if a private bakery may rely on a First Amendment right to religious freedom to deny service to a gay couple. Odds are the court will rule for the bakery, opening the question of how far a private company can impose it religious values on customers and employees. “Onionhead” is appealing this expensive judgment. Depending on how broadly the Supreme Court defines religious freedom, employees could lose their jobs for not toeing the religious line of Onionhead and more conventional religiously-oriented employers.