I'm a software developer, with over 10 years of experience in data munching.
During those strange times of isolation at home, I found unable to work as I usually do at my regular workplace. This created the situation where I now found myself with loads of free time, and thus I decided to pick up some freelance work to complement my income while it is possible to do so.
I recently finished a new feature for one of my clients, and went to deploy it on production. Things went smoothly, the software worked fine, the client was satisfied. Training was scheduled for the next day.
Comes the training, and we open up the video conference. I present the training, solve any doubts that pop up, and all is good.
Except that, later that day, I got an e-mail saying that my payment wouldn't be given because of my "satanist tendencies", and this client wouldn't be doing business with me anymore. I pressed a contact I have over the client's business, and it seems that the artwork present on my office was deeply offensive to some people, which generated complaints.
Thing is, said artwork on my office is from fantasy themes - elves, mermaids, dragons, and so on. Every piece is, at least to me, "SFW", and there isn't anything that could be remotely considered nudity (unless the exposed upper back of a mermaid somehow counts as nudity). The most "outrageous" piece of artwork there is a rather large oil painting showing a 20-sided die being cradled by a fairy-like woman.
For context, the space I use as my office was originally a room I set aside for hosting RPG nights, and the decoration is the result of artwork produced by my players or myself over the years. It is currently the quietest, most comfortable place in my home, and thus it seemed like a natural pick for working for extended periods of time. The idea that the decoration could be an issue with someone never crossed my mind.
I'm well aware that the client has no right to dock my pay based on that. I'll try to talk things out and, failing that, I'll take legal action. That's not my concern right now.
What I'm curious about is the idea that someone could get offended by generic fantasy imagery. I'm not talking about big tittied, titillating elves or lustful dragons sharing smooches with cat girls - Just regular, generic, "fantasy" imagery - I'm talking about the type of thing that shows up when you type "Fantasy Artwork" on Google Images with SafeSearch on.
So, to the question:
Is generic, non-adult fantasy imagery NSFW for the generic workplace?
Some additional relevant info:
I live and work on Brazil. I tend to clients all over the world when doing freelance stuff - this specific client is based in NY, USA.
This wasn't the first job I did for them. Other feature releases got me flying over to their place to give training. For obvious reasons, this wasn't possible this time.
This client sells Health Insurance. They got their system from me a couple years back. I trained their IT team to give maintenance on the software and add new features themselves, if they need, but every now and them they ask me to do a new feature myself if it is particularly troublesome for their team for some reason. I'm not aware of the reason they called me for this feature.
I never had a problem with this type of thing before. On my regular (non-freelance) workplace, the CEO actively incentives us to decorate our offices with whatever we like. Her very own office is lined with books, artwork, and figurines from sci-fi themes, mostly Warhammer 40k. I'm aware that small IT companies aren't a parameter for anything, however.
Update:
After some legal movements, I was able to get my money from the client. Seems like they weren't only bailing the pay on me, but on other contractors too.
On another note, I moved my workstation to another place of my home, where there is just a shelf with books behind me. I wasn't able to find a place with a "blank wall", so this will have to do for now.
For everyone that chipped in - you have my tanks!