Q&A: Working as an Employee
Working as an Employee
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Question 1.
An employee who receives a monthly salary (not a global fixed salary) works on various tasks assigned by his boss.
Suppose, for example, that according to his boss’s estimate, the average amount of work time for Project X is one month.
If that employee finishes the project in half a month, is he obligated to inform the boss of that (so that the boss can give him another project to work on), or is he allowed to sit idle during the second half of the month on the assumption that since the boss allocated a month for that project anyway, he would not mind if he is idle? Does such idleness count as theft? If not, what prohibition is he violating, if any?
Does another employee who is aware of this conduct have an obligation to report it to the boss, since that employee is ostensibly stealing from the boss?
Question 2.
An employee whose workday is, say, 8 hours "gross"—from 8:00 to 16:00—while in practice he works 6 hours "net," after deducting refreshment breaks, meals, and prayer, with the boss’s knowledge and consent.
Is he allowed to work continuously and finish at 14:00?
Question 3.
If an employer deceived his employee and did not pay him a salary increase that had been agreed upon, is the employee allowed, without the employer’s knowledge, to charge the employer overtime in the amount of the raise that had been agreed upon?
In advance, thank you.
Answer
- I think not. A person is supposed to work to the best of his ability, not according to the ability of an average worker. Sometimes he is hired because of his abilities, and sometimes he is even compensated accordingly. But even if not—I think you are supposed to work according to your own abilities. By the way, if everyone acts this way, how would you know what the ability of a reasonable worker is? Everyone just syncs to the same imaginary output. Only after each person does the best he can is it possible to see different levels of productivity and ability, and only then perhaps estimate what reasonable output is. However, if you are working especially fast beyond what is expected of you and beyond your normal abilities, then there is room to say that you may rest a bit on account of that.
- That depends on the contract. Sometimes the boss wants certain hours, not just a quantity of hours. Sometimes the breaks and meals are necessary for the quality of the work, and if you skip them your quality will drop.
- Contrary to common intuition, according to Jewish law דווקא if you can recover it in a religious court (that is, you have evidence), you are allowed to take the law into your own hands. Otherwise it is forbidden. But this is quite a complicated topic. You can see a short overview and references here: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%99%D7%93_%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A9_%D7%93%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%90_%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%A4%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%94