Should careers be compartmentalized?

Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times will reassure you or scare you, depending on your own belief system. More and more employers are bringing faith-based beliefs (the PC term for "religion") into the workplace. So far, it seems, most are careful. They don't want to risk giving the appearance of prejudice. And the NY Times reports that employees of religious organizations cannot sue for rights they would have in secular organizations. So if you're dismissed because you're too old or too sick -- too bad. It's called the ministerial exception. Not a problem, warns the Times, except if you're diagnosed with cancer while you're covered by that organization's group policies. Good luck finding your own "affordable" insurance afterwards. I think the real problem is that in a society like ours, we need more compartmentalization, not less. We have an economic relationship with an employer. We offer skills and produce output. They pay us. We need to separate health care, religion and personal lives from the workplace. Bridges's book JobShift, published over ten years ago, had the right idea. Set up craft guilds where people can get group insurance, so they won't need to rely on the government or an employer. Once health care gets separated a lot of other stuff will go away...like employers who care if their workers smoke or gain weight. And while unfairly dismissed employees face economic, social and psychological hardship, getting fired shouldn't mean a choice between death and bankruptcy. Rick Jarow has pointed out that in this way we're not much different from medieval serfs who depended on the landowner's goodwill for survival. Otherwise I say, Stay marketable and independent. If you like your employer's beliefs -- faith-based or otherwise -- you'll be fine. If you feel uncomfortable, be able to walk away. Ironically, the tie-in of medical benefits makes it harder to be independent, forcing many employees to exist in what most resembles a love-starved marriage.