Southwest Airlines thought it was getting rid of a workplace bully when it fired a flight attendant for sending abusive messages to a colleague on social media. But her termination turned into a legal nightmare, with the airline ordered to reinstate the flight attendant, pay $5 million in damages and send a team of its top lawyers to “religious liberty” training.

The episode underscores the predicament companies face in maintaining a workplace culture of mutual respect and civility. While never an easy proposition, it’s getting even harder as employees shed reservations about loudly sharing their strongly held religious and political beliefs, emboldened by a larger cultural push to bring their “whole” selves to work.

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