Wasting time at work

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pprimeau1976

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At what point does wasting time at work become sinful? I’m a salaried employee in the I.T. field and occasionally
we have our really slow moments (like right now). I know that we should give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. But there are times when I work overtime and don’t get paid.

Anyone’s thoughts on this?
 
pprimeau1976 said:
At what point does wasting time at work become sinful? I’m a salaried employee in the I.T. field and occasionally
we have our really slow moments (like right now). I know that we should give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. But there are times when I work overtime and don’t get paid.

Anyone’s thoughts on this?
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Similar situation in my job – some slow moments, then the next day, I may be here late into the night.

My opinion? As long as you are getting all of your work finished in the expected time frame, it’s not sinful. During slower periods, I may make improvements in certain processes, or do some technical writing (for my department), but I don’t think it’s necessary that we look busy every minute of the day just for the sake of looking busy. YMMV. 🙂
 
Different jobs have different expectations. If there is work to be done, that is your responsibility…then you should be doing it, but some jobs you are being paid to be available, if/when something comes up. If nothing comes up…then you are allowed your down time. Sort of an “on call” situation.

If you are fufilling your job description…then you are doing your job.
 
I am surprised about your overtime issue; it may be that you are salaried rather than hourly. If you are salaried, then you are not required to do a straight 8 to 5 and blank times are acceptable. And overtime is or should be compensated by some fexible makeup elsewhere, unless you were told that the postion was expected to be more than 8 hours 40 hour week on a regular basis.

If you are hourly, then they are most likely in violation of at a minimum federal wage and hour law, and likely state law also. You might want to speak to a supervisor about the issue if that is the case.

If you are hourly and have blank times, then either find the stinky little catch-up sork that always goes to the bottom of the important list, or see your supervisor for soemthing else to do. They usually have no problem finding that.
 
pprimeau1976 said:
At what point does wasting time at work become sinful? I’m a salaried employee in the I.T. field and occasionally
we have our really slow moments (like right now). I know that we should give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. But there are times when I work overtime and don’t get paid.

Anyone’s thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought the very same thing. I could have written every word of your post myself, including that I also work in the IT field. I feel so guilty when I’m in a lull and am spending time out here in CA, but then I’ll get hit and end up working stupid hours. (I’m a salaried employee as well - we probably work for the same company! 😉 )

Anyway - excellent topic! 👍

~Liza
 
As has been rightly pointed out, there are jobs where you are paid simply to be available as needed. Normally this is done because it would cost more (in terms of lost productivity or other costs) for you NOT to be there on the spot.

If you do your job, do it competently and in a timely way, let your bosses know when you’re free to help out in other ways, and if possible take a little initiative a la CarolAnn, then that’s all that you can be expected to do.
 
Hello to my fellow IT professionals. I feel the same way at times but then, we are being paid for our ability to keep the network running aren’t we? So if we do our jobs well and we aren’t constantly busy are we cheating the employer somehow? Of course not! I do frequent these boards quite often on the clock, but only when I am caught up or waiting for something. I work in a pretty small office but I handle the computers, networks and communications for 11 other sites with varying equipment. When my co-workers are not busy, I don’t complain that they are shopping or playing games on the internet because they are caught up too. I do draw the line at porn or illegal activity like downloading from pirate sites, and so far have only had to bring it up to one person in the past 2 years.
 
I have a job that goes from hectic to slow, especially after midnight. We have a simple rule: “No activity is permitted that interfers with one’s duties.” It is deliberately vague to allow both the use of judgement when times are slow and discipline when people goof off. We do have a few activities that have been abused and are specifically forbidden.
 
It doesn’t sound like there’s an intent to be sinful here. It may be worth pointing out that not getting paid for overtime does not effect whether this would be right or wrong in any way.

If it is pecking at you, just ask the boss if there’s something else you should be doing. - my guess is you’re fine
 
Hey while we have a bunch of us IT geeks in one place… What is your most challenging aspect of your job? Mine is while I know why the boss hired me (he has no clue about computers) he dreams big (I want to be able to connect all 5 or 6 of my computers in different states, but I don’t want to spend any money and I don’t want to learn anything new) and doesn’t understand it when I say no to him. The other (and this is a biggie) is that he only likes to use AOL email and that causes problems with integration… like sending it to his new cell phone and having to make sure he has the exact version on each computer so it looks the same.
 
My job also has busy and slow times. The way I see it, I am paid not only for my labor, but for my presence and expertise in case something unexpected occurs. When things are slow, it’s fine to do non-work related activities to pass the time as long as your own work is finished, nobody else needs help with their assignments, and there is truly nothing else to do. It’s only a sin if we are not keeping up with our own workload, or if we are slacking off while our coworkers are swamped and we don’t offer to help them. Life usually evens things out anyway – today we play on the internet and do sudoku puzzles, tomorrow we eat our lunches at our desks while we work because there is no time for a break, and we get paid the same, regardless.
 
CarrieH said:
My job also has busy and slow times. The way I see it, I am paid not only for my labor, but for my presence and expertise in case something unexpected occurs. … today we play on the internet and do sudoku puzzles, tomorrow we eat our lunches at our desks while we work because there is no time for a break, and we get paid the same, regardless.
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This is similar to my situation. I have had to eat at my desk many a time. I seldom get to go to lunch during the day, even for 15 minutes, without a phone call or question to answer. On nights and weekends, however I sometimes have an hour or two dead.

I believe I earn my salary every day, even on slow ones, because of the quality of judgement I use and the level at which I have to make decisions.
 
pprimeau1976 said:
At what point does wasting time at work become sinful? I’m a salaried employee in the I.T. field and occasionally
we have our really slow moments (like right now). I know that we should give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. But there are times when I work overtime and don’t get paid.

Anyone’s thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I have this on the wall in my cube and try to remember to read it each morning.
I find that I’m MUCH more productive when I do.
There’s always something you can work on.

Prayer to Saint Joseph
Glorious Saint Joseph, model of all who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in the spirit of penance in expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously by placing love of duty above my inclinations; to gratefully and joyously deem it an honor to employ and to develop by labor the gifts I have received from God, to work methodically, peacefully, and in moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from it through weariness or difficulty to work; above all, with purity of intention and unselfishness, having unceasingly before my eyes death and the account I have to render of time lost, talents unused, good not done, and vain complacency in success, so baneful to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all to imitate thee, O patriarch Saint Joseph! This shall be my motto for life and eternity.

Pope Saint Pius X
 
In the IT field, there are several ways to optimize your added value to the organization during slack times:
Improving system up time programs, MTBF, etc
Improving business process efficiency through system support
Help desk works
Planning for the next system upgrade
Anticipating next virus attack
Reviewing deliverables for the month
5S
Research works
Going for a scheduled break
Review supplier performance

Fidgeting during seat time is the least of them.
 
This thread reminds me of a fellow from years ago whom the boss hated and despised. This was cooperate work so the boss lacked direct authority to fire. The boss assigned him the worse job at every opportunity. The employee studied why this was the worst job, and then figured out how to “get ahead of the job”. This really meant to understand what series of factors contributed to making this job a problem. With in a day or two Jim was leaning on the wall smoking again and the boss was beside himself. I often tried to explain to the boss Jim was one of his best employees. Trying to explaining that was a worse use of time than leaning on the wall smoking.
 
I think that if you’re on salary or long hours or whatever, you can’t be expected to be in top form all the time. It would be different if you were stashing $1000 per hour and worked one hour daily as some sort of emergency consultant and every minute of your attention were so precious.

You’re paid to perform a certain role, to fill a place, to do tasks on a continual basis. I don’t think you should worry too much about being in the best possible form at the exact time you’re working etc etc. And, if a slower pace for a while or so would make you more efficient for the remaining hours, I wouldn’t see a problem with it.

Being true to one’s job and loyal to one’s employer is one thing. Corporate rhetoric of “time theft” and limiting such things as even going to the toilet, that’s a completely different thing. Corporations cannot and should not see people through the prism of monetary value. An employee is a person, not a dollar-convertible asset obliged to improve itself on its own to convert into more dollars.

These days, they’re making it look like a person’s first and foremost moral obligation is to bring the most cash to the company no matter anything else, as in “managing” oneself and whatever one does. “Efficiency management” practiced on self, a human person. :mad:
 
Thanks for all the great posts!

I guess it all depends on your situation. If I were a contractor who billed hourly for 40 hours a week, then I can see how doing any web browsing during those hours would be “sinful”.

In my current situation as a salaried employee. I don’t think what I do is sinful, but I am mindful that it could get out of control. What I do think would be sinful is if I persistently whined about having to work unusual hours or longer hours sometimes, yet had no problem with chatting at the water cooler, taking or making personal calls, or browsing the web. I also think it would be sinful if I criticized other’s use of their time.
 
I work in a real estate law firm and my day is supposed to be from 8:30-5:00 M-F but there are lots of times where I’m expected to not take lunch and we are not allowed breaks during the day except to rush to the restroom. Many times we also work until 11:30 at night with no breaks either. And at the end of the month we are not allowed to take vacation days, have dr. appts, or even take a sick day if we are really sick. Also we are expected to work on weekends if our boss thinks we should. Most employees are sallaried and we work just under what is required to have the mandatory overtime, so what overtime that we do get paid for amounts to what our boss wants to give us and whether or not he’s mad at us that day:rolleyes: .

So I keep CAF up on my computer and I take a 5-10 minute break everyonce in a while just to relieve the pressure and stress.

I hope that’s not doing anything wrong!🤷
 
pprimeau1976 said:
At what point does wasting time at work become sinful? I’m a salaried employee in the I.T. field and occasionally
we have our really slow moments (like right now). I know that we should give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. But there are times when I work overtime and don’t get paid.

Anyone’s thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I’m in the same boat.

Some slow periods followed by firedrills trying to get out 3 projects before the end of the week and it’s Friday.

Jim
 
If there is work to be done and you know the task is not finished while you are doing nothing then IMHO you are stealing form the company.

If it is slow and nothing is waiting to be finished then this is just down time and no theft of time is involved.

If you stand around and let others do your job and do nothing then again IMHO it is theft from both the person doing your job and the company.

If the person volunteers to do something for you and it is OK with the company to allow them to do the work it IMHO is not theft.

So as you can see it depends on the circumstance and what Jesus would do if he were in your place.
 
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