Q&A: Unsure Whether to Return Lost Property
Unsure Whether to Return Lost Property
Question
I work with people who are not members of the covenant; they are professionals in their field, and I work with them in a job that is not professional.
They are hard to replace; I am easy to throw out, and within a few minutes they would find someone to replace me on the same terms and pay level.
The rich boss is a difficult man—irritable, grumbling, verbally abusive, arrogant, and in short, full of every fine quality…
I see that the workers who are not Jews cheat him and do not work during hours when they know he is not looking at the cameras, and that is perhaps how they psychologically compensate themselves and get back at him for the treatment he dishes out to us day after day.
Am I obligated to tell him to check the visible cameras during such-and-such hours (assuming there are also hidden ones), so that this should not fall under the category of “he should hire workers and not sit with them”? And thereby return his lost property to him?
In principle I avoid doing this,
both because this wicked, tyrannical rich man deserves it,
and because if I report it, there is a high probability that I will find myself without a job while they remain. After all, I am easy to replace, since my work is not professional, and at the wage he pays it would take minutes to find me a replacement, unlike the work of the non-Jewish employees. And the one who would fire me would be exactly the boss whose money I came to save.
So should I save his money while risking my own?
Besides, he has cameras—let him use his head for something besides yelling and raging…
Do these reasons exempt me from reporting it to him?
My job is very specific, and obviously not a job of reporting on people.
Answer
I think you are exempt for all the reasons you described: if he is screwing them over, then he deserves it. If he installed cameras, then let him watch them himself. And you are not supposed to pay or lose money in order to save him.
Beyond that, I assume there are certain standards accepted in that field, and perhaps they are not working below the standard, and he employs them with that understanding. Not everyone is Jacob our Patriarch (“By day scorching heat consumed me…” ).
More power to you.