“In the same manner that an employer is forbidden to deny the poor employee his salary, or hold back what is owed him in any way, the employee is also forbidden to deny the employer the true effort of his work by wasting his time, either in pieces or the day as a whole.”

-Maimonides

Not only should employers, who usually have the upper hand in the employee/employer power dynamic, pay their workers promptly (“Do not hold a worker’s wages overnight”), but workers are equally obligated to give a fair day’s work for a fair wage.

In today’s digitally connected workplace, this includes staying off Facebook, Twitter, sending personal emails and playing Hearts or Solitaire during paid hours. We won’t even get into porn sites, which carry an entirely different and related set of issues.

I’ve been self employed most of my career, and I need to especially guard against the temptation to fritter time during the day. Fortunately, I’m very good at getting a lot done in a short period of time, so I usually earn my wage. And I can be just as prone to working longer than I should as well. The key is fair work for fair pay.

How can you give full work for full pay today?

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Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (acronymed Rambam for “Rabbeinu Moshe Ben Maimon”, and Latinized Moses Maimonides), was a preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer,and became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. He worked as a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.