People in offices in the UK might be more careful not to make jokes about gender or disability than they used to. But they still make jokes about religion, according to a new report.

As many as one million people in Britain may have experienced harassment, discrimination or bullying at work because of their religion or belief, it finds.

The Belief at Work study into faith in the workplace, published by ComRes found that just three percent of British workers say they have personally been discriminated against in the workplace because of their religion.

But as a proportion of the total workforce, this amounts to about one million people.

More than a third of employees said that people in their workplace never talk about their religion or beliefs. 

Some conversations that did take place were not reported as discrimination but still left the worker feeling uncomfortable.

One person said: 'I was having training about coping with extremely stressful situations and, in the discussion, didn't feel able to say that I usually pray at times like that. I thought it might make people feel uncomfortable.'

Another said: 'In our office, everyone is very respectful of minorities and would never be disparaging about women or people with disabilities, but when it comes to religion it's fair game. People can be very insulting, especially when they express it through humour.'

ComRes reports that the crucial element is to have a conversation which makes room for listening without embarrassment. 'While many of our findings identify missed opportunities to make provision, we're also aware of people who try so hard to accommodate religious practice that they misjudge people's needs,' the report says.

One Muslim respondent said: 'I went to a meeting and found they'd provided special food on a separate plate, and created a prayer room just for me. I don't actually eat halal or use prayer rooms and felt uncomfortable that they'd gone to so much unnecessary effort. Their well-intentioned efforts to try to include me in fact made me feel excluded and very different to everyone else.' 

Nearly one fifth of  workers reported that their employer makes provision for prayer at work.

Eight in ten human resources managers say that their organisation provides written policies on religion and belief.

Some organisations said that making provision for networks for religion and belief, either as a voluntary lunchtime activity for discussion and mutual support or as a formal consultative body to contribute to organisational development, added value to the workplace.

One third support societies, fellowship or networks for religion and belief.

Katie Harrison, director of ComRes Faith Research Centre, said: 'We know there are great examples of workplaces where people listen well to each other and everyone feels able to talk freely about their lives.

'An acid test for many workplaces is the Monday morning conversation. Do people always say what they did at the weekend, or do they leave out the part about pursuing a religious or belief-related activity because they feel uncomfortable to say so?

'Some people told us they felt uncomfortable about mentioning that they pray, for example, even in business conversations where they were talking about ways to cope in a crisis and prayer would probably be something that some people would do.

'Or we heard of people feeling upset that religion was the butt of jokes in a workplace where people have become much more aware about making disparaging comments about gender or disability. We know that good conversations, tailored workplace research and thoughtful listening can help identify some of these problems and solve them quickly.'