I have been asked by my employer to work more hours since they laid off other employees.\u00a0 Is there anything against doing this in the Bible, if it means having less time with my young son and wife?\u00a0 This will not be overtime as I am a salaried employee.<\/p>\n\t
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/em>” (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<\/em>” (I Peter 2:18-20).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I have been asked by my employer to work more hours since they laid off other employees.\u00a0 Is there anything against doing this in the Bible, if it means having less time with my young son and wife?\u00a0 This will not be overtime as I am a salaried employee. Answer: As a salaried employee,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[105,104],"class_list":["post-18262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-employment","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56087,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/employer-employee\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":0},"title":"Employer — Employee","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey in\u00a0The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 12, Oct. 1952. In this, the Christian dispensation, God does not set forth one form of civil government as being above another. He does, however, lay down definite principles which are to govern the conduct of any kind of government, and principles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3645,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-wages-be-fixed\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":1},"title":"Should wages be fixed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions: Describe the merits and demerits of fixed wages. Answer: When wages are described in the Bible, they are determined by negotiation. An employer declares what he is willing to pay and a prospective employee replies whether he will accept the job for that pay. For example, Jacob negotiated a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-better-to-accept-unfair-wages-or-stay-unemployed-in-hopes-of-better-wages\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":2},"title":"Is it better to accept unfair wages or stay unemployed in hopes of better wages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Should a person work for an employer who provides unjust wages, even if it's the market rate? e.g. employer keeps 90% profit, employee 10%. In this scenario, is it better to negotiate a fairer rate or change professions? If one is unemployed, should one accept an unjust wage? Would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-biblical-to-take-a-vacation\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":3},"title":"Is it biblical to take a vacation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, Is it biblical to take a vacation from work? Thank you. Answer: Employment is governed by rules set by governments and the agreement between the employer and the employee. For example, under the Law of Moses, the Israelites were required to not work on Saturdays (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10957,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-have-to-work-on-sundays-if-my-boss-demands-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":4},"title":"Do I have to work on Sundays if my boss demands it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering, do we Christians have to work Sundays, or are we protected by any kind of laws stating that it is against the law for an employer to make a Christian employee\u00a0work on a Sunday? I have a job where they started a new schedule where they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-boss-isnt-writing-a-reference-as-she-promised-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":18262,"position":5},"title":"My boss isn’t writing a reference as she promised. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been working for an employer part-time, less than 19 hours a week, but I have come across an opportunity to work as a teacher's assistant. My boss has always applauded me and said what a great job I was doing, and how I was her best employee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}