Question:
Assalamu alaykum Shaykh Taher,
InshaAllah you’re doing well. Mawlana Shaykh Hisham gave us a very important sohbet last night. One of the topics was giving our correct due, or time, to our jobs. Of course he is correct when he stated that we owe our employers 8 hours each day we’re supposed to work….of course referring to regular, salaried employees like me and you. Here’s a problem I have though: it’s the nature of my work that there are slow periods, when most of my current projects are complete and no more work can be done on them until somebody else finishes a certain task. In my case, it’s even worse because when I went on medical leave for 2 months back on 10/7, I had to hand over all of my projects to various team members, and when I returned to work in December, well that’s a slow period in itself. So, I’ve gotten very few projects since then and the ones I have gotten are fairly easy and quickly completed. The bottom line is this: it’s a very slow period for me right now, and I’ve even spoken to the project managers I work with about this, and that I need 2 or 3 new projects to stay busy. I’ve even reached out to some of my cohorts to tell them if they need help with anything, to let me know, as I have a light work load. InshaAllah new projects are coming soon, but right now it’s all I can do to ‘work’ even 3 or 4 hours a day, if you know what I mean. I try to fill the remaining time with chores at home, and my Awrad, reading, etc. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong, and when things do get busy I give 8 hours or sometimes 9 or 10 on a given day. Regardless, I know Mawlana Shaykh Hisham wasn’t saying that it’s “black or white”, and of course he understands that some jobs are fluid in the sense I described.
Of course I’m not asking you to address Mawlana Shaykh Hisham with this matter, but I would appreciate your thoughts on this. May Allah SWT forgive and bless us.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
No problem as long as your employer is happy with your work and you’re not slacking off in order to do your wird, or worse, to play on the internet :-)
Typically that’s the case with salaried employees, though usually it goes the opposite direction where you’re expected to work 50-60 hours with no extra pay.
Taher Siddiqui
