if a person is paid by the hour, is he required to work every single minute, because anything less is stealing the employer’s time? or is it enough that the work actually gets done?
and what about the normal parts of a workday, a coffee break, a personal phone call, a few slow minutes? are those theft from the employer, or just part of how every job works everywhere?
bottom line: what does halacha expect from an hourly worker, and from the employer on the other side?
Thank you Rabbi, thank you very much.
If a person is paid by the hour, that does not mean he has to work every single second without breathing, taking a bathroom break, getting coffee, answering an occasional personal call, or having a few slow minutes.
The basic rule is that employment is governed by the agreement and by the normal custom of that workplace and industry. If the accepted practice is that employees take ordinary breaks, then those breaks are part of the job. If the employer knows what is going on and is satisfied with it, that also matters.
Some jobs are really about time. Others are much more about getting the work done.
I had an employee many years ago who ran our warehouse. During parts of the day he would disappear, run errands, and do his own thing. We knew it. But when the trucks had to go out, he was there. When deliveries came in, he was there. Everything got done properly and we were very happy with him. Years later he apologized to me for how much time he had spent running around. I told him there was nothing to apologize for. We knew about it and did not care because he did the job we hired him to do.
That is a good example of why you cannot reduce this to a stopwatch.
If the workplace custom allows a five-minute break every hour, taking that break is not stealing even if the boss would personally prefer that nobody ever stop working. That is part of the employment arrangement.
And if technically the normal break is five minutes, but the boss regularly sees you taking ten minutes, is satisfied with your work, and never objects, that can also become part of the understood arrangement between you.
On the other hand, if you are deliberately disappearing for long periods, hiding it from the employer, and you know very well that the employer would never agree to pay you for that time, then you have a problem.
So there are really two things to look at:
What is the normal custom in that type of workplace?
And what does this particular employer knowingly accept?
Halachah recognizes local employment custom. The Gemara in Bava Metzia 83a says:
הכל כמנהג המדינה
Everything follows the local custom.
Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 331, applies that principle to employment arrangements.
So use common sense. You are being paid to do a job under the normal understood conditions of that job, not to behave like a machine every second of the day.