Halachic perspective - not enough work to fill time

amother

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 3:34 pm

Please no one throw tomatoes at me ....this is more of a daydream of my ideal life than anything else (I think)

I'm curious if anyone has been in a situation (and spoken to a Rav) where they are supposed to be working full time but are able to complete their work in less time and thus have "free time"? In that case, do you have to inform a supervisor and let them know you're available to do additional work? I would love for it to be halachically ok to to be get paid a full time salary without having to work full time hours. I have a feeling it wouldn't be honest unless supervisor was informed so I'm wondering if anyone has encountered this scenario and found a kosher loophole.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 3:41 pm

Lol, not sure about the halachic aspect, but I know lots of people who worked for certain divisions of the federal government and had so much free time at work that they managed to run a 2nd business in their free time. It's sort of a joke in my community. I won't say where because there will definitely be tomato throwers.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 3:44 pm

amother NeonPink wrote:

Do you work remote? As an employer I would be very upset if my employees would bill for hours they ddn't work. Very unethical

100%
But I'm assuming OP meant a full time in house salaried position, where you're not paid hourly.

amother

Dandelion

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 3:47 pm

If you're salaried, and happen to have some downtime during your duties, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If you're hourly, that's more problematic. I'm a salaried employee that reliably has maybe 2-3 hours of downtime a day. My employer is well aware that that time is simply quiet and doesn't mind. I'm fortunate in that way. Since it's in the middle of the day, I can't just leave early, but I can take care of personal stuff then. Like appointments (my doctors are close to my office), or filling out forms, or online shopping. It's definitely a nice perk of my job.

amother

Pear

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 4:10 pm

amother Dandelion wrote:

I think it depends on the type of job. Some jobs when you finish your work for the day then you're done. But I
had a previous job where I was paid hourly and it was worth it for my boss to have me sit there bored sometimes because it was unpredictable when it would get busy. I couldn't leave when I was bored because then I wouldn't have been there when I was needed.

teachkids

Mon, Dec 25 2023, 4:38 pm

My husband can count the downtime hours when he's at work (he uses the spare time to learn or do school work) since he's at work and available for their work there. On days he works from home he can only count the actual time he's working

amother

Mint

Mon, Feb 05 2024, 1:58 pm

amother OP wrote:

Do you get paid per job, or hourly?
Does the boss expect you to spend all day on a task but it only takes you a few hours.
If you finish your task, and would tell your supervisor you are done, would they give you other work to do, or would they just say ok great, see you tomorrow?
Also depends on type of job you do. Eg if you are just maning the phone, but no one is calling now, I'm sure in that "down time" you could do what you want, as long as you are able to answer the phone if it rings.

amother

Maize

Mon, Feb 05 2024, 3:08 pm

If you get a global salary (not hourly), and you are able to get all your responsibilities done, at my job no one cares if you do it faster and have free time.

But not everyone feels that way. You can have a generic conversation with your boss about it.

amother

Peru

Mon, Feb 05 2024, 3:33 pm

I do this.
But my boss told me straight out that it isn't a full time workload, and he needs someone dedicated during the agreed amount hours.
It is worth it to him to pay a full time salary.
Yes, it's remote.
No, he doesn't want me double diming and doing another job even if I'm able to.

Eta: at another job, there were months that were crazy busy, but the company needed staff a few months a year for very large accounts that had complicated requirements. This staff twiddled their thumbs the rest of the months.
Again it was worth it, because these accounts would place orders in the millions and the salaries were prob around 50k.
If the orders weren't processed properly, these accounts wouldn't order period.
This was in person though..

amother

Caramel

Mon, Feb 05 2024, 5:11 pm

If you are salaried and get your work done and have downtime it comes with the job.

You arent required to find stuff to do. Some jobs have backlog tasks you can do when theres downtime and others dont.

Thats the way work is.

You are being paid for being available not just for actual output.

amother

Ghostwhite

Mon, Feb 05 2024, 5:30 pm

When I first started working at age 19 I had a job like that. The previous employee took a month to complete my main responsibility every month, and it took me a little more than a week. I tried to schlep it out and not conspicuously complete it so quickly.
I never thought to ask a shailah about it, but I did tell the boss that I would be doing homework for college whenever there was downtime. He said as long I completed that main responsibility every month and was available to take care of customers if necessary, he was fine with it.

Also, the first four months I worked really hard setting up the system and fixing all the mistakes of the previous employee. That's why I was able to complete my job so quickly later on. I felt like I earned the downtime. I don't know. Maybe it was wrong.