Is it wrong for my employer to demand more hours from me?
Question:
I have been asked by my employer to work more hours since they laid off other employees. Is there anything against doing this in the Bible, if it means having less time with my young son and wife? This will not be overtime as I am a salaried employee.
Answer:
As a salaried employee, you have negotiated a fixed pay in exchange for doing a job. The number of hours demanded by the employer for that fixed pay is up to the employer, though a couple of states regulate what can be demanded. Your choice is whether to continue to accept the terms or not. If the number of hours rises too much a salaried employee may leave because he can get more compensation working for someone else at fewer hours or can even work as an hourly employee and make more because of overtime.
As a Christian, whether you choose to leave or not is up to you, but while you are there you owe good service to your employer. The forty-hour workweek is not a biblical demand. In the days of the Bible, many people worked as slaves. They didn't have a choice of either employers or the number of hours their employer demanded of them. "Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free" (Ephesians 6:5-8). It doesn't matter whether the employer is good or not. "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God" (I Peter 2:18-20).
Fortunately, you have a choice as to whether you stay or not with your employer. So if the demands become unacceptable, start searching out another job which has better work demands and when you get it you can leave your current employer.
