But Neace said she was told she could no longer say the phrase anymore and was later fired after working at the bank for 24 years.
This actually might be more of the reason than anything else. She could have been close to retirement and by firing her they won’t have to pay any retirement Bennies.
Also I have seen in myself and others that ‘habit patterns’ in speech do occur. ‘Have a blessed day’ might be one of her’s that she says unthinkingly to end a conversation.
“Have a blessed day.” might work itself into a speech pattern. It’s actually a fairly innocuous statement. It hardly can be characterized as raving, snake-handling fanaticism.
Retirement bennies....that’s definitely worth checking out. That would put it at the level of age discrimination, too.