Taking Off From Work
QUESTION 42: TAKING OFF FROM WORK, DOING OWN WORK AT WORK
I went to a one-day conference that ended at 3 PM. I could
have gotten back to work by 4. In similar situations, my boss
has told me I could go home. But there was something I was
writing for myself that I wanted to do at my desk at work.
I could skip that task, and go home. But if I wanted to do
that task, and got to work at 4, and I usually work until 5,
can I start on my own work before 5? What if my boss is
often flexible by letting me go home early if I feel like
it? What if it doesn't look suspicious, because I don't work
near my boss or co-workers?
RABBI BELSKY
It's not a simple thing at all, because when someone tells
you that it's acceptable to go home, it means that it's
because of the undue hardship to travel from the conference
to the office only for one hour. The boss is being nice to
let a worker not to have to travel for an hour just to be there
for one hour's work. But if you're traveling there anyway,
so you're there, then that undue hardship is no longer a
factor, in which case the work should be done. In other
words, you owe an hour's work to the boss.
I'm trying to think it out carefully. Nobody gives away an
hour of work, to let you go home directly from the conference,
unless there's a reason for it. And the reason is because he
feels he might be demanding too much. He doesn't want to be
oppressive to his workers, to show that he's a tyrant, and
make a worker travel for an hour to work for an hour. But
if you're going to travel anyway, then you owe him the hour.
I think that's the correct evaluation.
QUESTIONER
Let me just ask you something general. I can see how
difficult evaluating this question is even for you - a
talmid chochom (Torah scholar). These things pop up every
day to almost everybody. It says Torah lo bashomayim hi (the
Torah was given for this world), and that we should be able
to conduct our lives according to it. How are we supposed to
deal with these things if we don't have a very high level
of knowledge?
RABBI BELSKY
What a person should do is go over to the boss and say,
"I could get back at 4:00, and I know that you would probably tell
me I could go home. Would it be okay if I come and do some work
of my own?"
QUESTIONER
But most of these cases are difficult. If Torah lo bashomayim
hi and yet these things are incredibly complicated to really
get a good take on it, it almost seems like Torah is in shomayim.
We're not equipped to be able to deal with these questions.
They're too complicated. If they're complicated for you, it
certainly is going to be complicated for everybody else. What
does Hashem expect from us if these situations are so difficult,
and we don't have the background to deal with them?
RABBI BELSKY
First and foremost, try your best even if you'll end up making
mistakes occasionally. Keep asking questions and try to avoid
taking something that is not yours. Beyond that, there is a much
deeper principle involved here. If a person goes to work, he
should have to struggle over questions like this for a while,
until he refines and develops and strengthens his sense of
justice and propriety, so that he shouldn't stumble. The
struggle itself is an important thing. The situations are
difficult, and the difficulty is something that's important
for the person. It creates a struggle in the mind. The worst
thing in the world would be for someone to say, "I'd like to have
some easy standard to follow all the time, being that I'm not such
a scholar, and lo bashomayim hee". Just the opposite - a person
should find it difficult and strain his mind over issues like this.
That's what makes a basic human being into an ish emes (a person of
truth). Everyone has to struggle with certain issues of life, and
happy is the person whose struggle is over issues like this. Each
bit of stress and strain adds to the value of his neshomah (soul).
If people avoid the types of struggle over the sort of questions
that we've been discussing - especially if they are avoiding
these struggles by always giving themselves dispensations -
those people will have to struggle on a much less important
level. People who put their efforts into thinking about
these things are working on a higher level than people
who just ignore these questions. It's a small price to
pay for upgrading one's neshama (soul).
NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION 43: ISSUE INVOLVING CAR SERVICE
My friend's employer asked him to work late, and agreed
to pay for a car service back to Monsey. The car service
the company usually uses charges $150 for the ride home,
which the company pays for. My friend prefers to use a
Monsey car service because the drivers know the way better,
and the Monsey car service charges only $80. He puts it on
his credit card, and the company reimburses him. On the way
home, my friend wants to stop in Washington Heights to pick
up his mother to come to Monsey. That extra stop costs an
additional $10. Can he charge the entire $90 to the company,
since it is less than the $150 his company is willing to
spend, or should he just charge the $80 - excluding the
extra fee for picking his mother up on the way home?
Participate in the Honesty Forum, and discuss the issues we confront in this class!
Subscribe to Honesty and receive this class via e-
mail.
