Using Work Time For Personal Endeavors
From Halachipedia
One must be exceedingly careful to maximize one’s work hours only for work-related matters and limit the amount of time dedicated towards personal matters.[1] One must dedicate maximum efforts and strengths towards completing the tasks which one was hired for.[2][3] The performance of one’s job in a faithful manner is exceedingly commendable.[4]
Having said that, in modern work environments different employers have different implicit and explicit agreements with their employees regarding work-time allocation (lunch break, taking a walk, checking personal emails, making personal phone calls etc). One should be very stringent to utilize work-time properly, and consider the general practice of the place and time period.[5]
- ↑ Bava Metzia 7:4
- ↑ Rambam 13:7 explains that just as an employer has to be careful not to steal from his worker, so too his worker must be stringent upon himself not to waste time. He is obligated to work B’Kol Kocho, with all his strength, just like Yaakov Avinu did when working for Lavan (Bereishit 31:6). One who is careful to work stringently and honestly will even reap great reward in this world, as the Pasuk says that Yaakov was rewarded in this world and the world to come (Bereishit 30:43).
- ↑ Shulchan Aruch C.M. 337:20
- ↑ Aruch Hashulchan C.M. 331:3
- ↑ Mishna Bava Metzia 7:1
