Two Questions
Fired for Time Fraud!
“The wages of the
righteous bring them life, but the
income of the wicked brings them
punishment.”
Dear Mr. Wilson:
I worked for a company
of 500 employees for 12 years in the
accounting department. For the past
five years, I was in charge of
accounts payable. I was fired on
April 28 and escorted to the door
because of time fraud. Emotionally, I
am still reeling from this because I
was highly conscientious about my
responsibilities at work. In short,
here is the story: Two years ago my
employer’s business began to
slow down due to the ailing economy.
The company terminated some of the
newer employees in the accounting
department because there wasn’t
enough work to keep everyone busy. As
the manager of accounts payable, I
found that I could get 98% of my work
done by 2 P.M. and after dealing with
boredom, I thought I would use my
“unproductive time” by
starting an Internet business on the
side. (I had high-speed Internet
access at my work desk.) At no time
did I use my employer’s work to
take care of personal business. I
stayed “on top” of my
work-related duties and made sure
that I met all of my employee
responsibilities and deadlines. On
Friday, April 25, my computer died.
I called the computer support
department and they took my computer
to the shop for repair. When I
returned Monday morning, there was a
note on my desk indicating the CFO
[Chief Financial Officer] wanted to
see me first thing. I went to his
office and he told me that I have
been fired for time fraud. The
computer repair team had discovered
my personal business and a
substantial set of records of my
personal activities. I tried to
explain that my personal business had
not affected my work or my competency
as the manager of accounts payable. I
reminded him that my reviews had been
excellent. He agreed that I had been
a great employee, but he also said
that I had lost my dedication to the
company an diluted my efforts toward
its success with personal pursuits.
He said that my personal business
during work hours had
“robbed” the company of my
time, creativity, and energy that it
was due. He said that if I had
“non-productive time” that
I was obligated to seek out other
assignments within the company
because the company was paying me a
salary to be totally dedicated to the
success of the company, not my
personal interests. He asked,
Why” should my company pay you
and other employees to conduct
business for themselves?” He
said the he was very sorry that I had
divided my interests and loyalty. He
called Security and a guard escorted
me to my desk and after gathering up
a few personal items, I was escorted
to the door.
Needless to say, I
have been devastated. I never thought
of myself being a thief. I am angry
for losing a great job at a time like
this. I thought as long as I was
“doing my job,” that
nothing more was expected of me. I
was wrong. I have been sickened by
the ordeal and seeking another job
with time fraud in my history is
painful. I am writing to ask whether
you think I own my employer some form
of “restitution.” I have
read your articles on the importance
of making things right and I am
trying to sort this out. The CFO said
that I stole time and money from them
and in retrospect I have to agree.
What do you think the Lord wants me
to do?
Sincerely, Michelle
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Dear Michelle:
Thank you for your
e-mail. I know that you are in a
painful situation. You have asked a
good question and I hope my response
will be helpful. Before I address the
issue of restitution, I would like to
comment on a couple of things. First,
time fraud is a huge problem in
America. In 2005, Salary.com and
America Online took a survey on
employee practices. They found that
employees spend an average of 2.09
hours per eight-hour workday on
something other than their jobs, not
including lunch and breaks. Based on
these averages, employee time-wasting
costs U.S. employers an estimated
$544 billion each year. More than
half of the 2,706 people surveyed
admitted that their biggest
distraction during work hour was
surfing the Internet for personal
use. Other distractions included
socializing with co-workers, running
errands outside the office, personal
phone calls, and personal endeavors.
Michelle, think about this. If your
salary was $20 an hour, and you spent
approximately three hours a day on
personal business, in a week’s
time you have stolen $300 in wages
from your employer. (Actually, the
amount is greater than $300 per week
because your employer pays taxes
based on your earning, as well as
vacation time, health insurance,
retirement, etc.)
The second thing I
need to say is that your remarks give
me the impression that you may not
fully realize the extent of your
actions. Here is the problem: You
defined you job rather than allowing
your employer to dynamically define
or redefine your job. You wrote,
“At no time did I put my
personal business on a higher
priority than that of my
employer.” This is not true.
When you concluded that you could
finish your duties by 2 P.M., you
should have gone to your employer and
said, “I don’t have enough
work to keep me busy.” You
should have been honest, but you were
not. Rather, you began doing personal
business at your employer’s
expense. You substituted your
employer’s job description with
personal goals.
It is clear to me that
you owe restitution to your former
employer. We cannot expect God to
forgive us for stealing without first
making an effort to restore what we
stole. Jesus said, “Therefore,
if you are offering your gift at the
altar and there remember that your
brother has something against you,
leave your gift there in front of the
altar. First go and be reconciled to
your brother; then come and offer
your gift. ‘Settle matters
quickly with your adversary who is
taking you to court. Do it while you
are still with him on the way, or he
may hand you over to the judge, and
the judge ma hand you over to the
officer, and you may be thrown
into prison. I tell you the truth,
you will not get out until you have
paid the last penny.’” (Matthew
5:23-26)
You may have been
naïve when you started doing
business for yourself at work. Nevertheless,
you were fired because you stole time
and money from your employer. Your
employer faithfully paid you to work
for him, not yourself. I thing
you should go back to the CFO and
tell him that you now realize the
seriousness of your actions and that
you would like to make amends. Ask
him to help you determine what you
owe the company and reassure him that
you will somehow pay it – even
if it takes you many months. Further,
if you are interested, tell him that
you have learned a painful lesson and
that you would be pleased to work for
the company again in whatever
position he might deem appropriate.
Be courageous, admit your error, and
do your best to make it right even if
he does not offer you a job. At
least, when he is called for a
reference, he will have to admit that
yes, you were fired for time fraud,
but you have done everything possible
to atone for your actions. This will
speak volumes about your integrity
and character, and most of all, you
will have peace with God knowing that
you have done the right thing. Now,
get going with restitution, and the
guilt that nags at you will quickly
disappear!
Best regards,
Larry Wilson
Is Sabbath the Seventh
Day?
Dear Mr. Wilson:
Is there a simple way
to prove that the seventh day of the
week, Saturday, is the same seventh
day of Creation? I am asking because
my co-worker says time has been lost
and we can’t possibly know which
day of the week is God’s seventh
day.
Thank you, Glen:
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Dear Glen:
Yes, there is a simple
way to prove that Saturday, the
seventh day of the week, is the
seventh day Sabbath Creation. Here is
how: About 2,500 years after
Creation, Jesus delivered Israel from
Egyptian slavery. He took them into
the wilderness and gave them manna to
eat. For forty years Jesus Himself
demonstrated which day was His
seventh day Sabbath because no manna
fell on that day! Even more
compelling, if we jump forward to
when Jesus was on Earth, the Bible
records how He observed the seventh
day which He Himself had made holy at
Creation. (Luke 4:16)
In the second century,
A.D., Christians in Rome began
deviating from observing the seventh
day Sabbath. About 45 B.C., Mithraism
took root in Rome and many Romans
worshiped on Sunday, the holy day of
Mirthra, the Sun God, before
Christianity arrived in Rome. As
the Mirthraites converted to
Christianity, they wanted to continue
observing Sunday as a holy day. This
was because Sunday observance was
prevalent in Rome by the second
century A.D. and Roman Christians
wanted to avoid being associated or
identified with the Jews. (The Romans
despised the Jews.) As time passed,
the Church of Rome became the
influential center for Christian
doctrine, and the Emperor of Rome,
Constantine, became a Christian for
political reasons. He imposed the
first Sunday law in March, A.D., 321
– a law that pleased the
Mirthraites, as well as the
Christians. Today, as you know, most
Christians worship on Sunday, the
first day of the week.
There is one more item
that you need to know. During the
sixth century A.D. Mohammed
established the sixth day of the week
as a day that all Moslems must attend
a religious service and participate
in prayers at a mosque. Any Moslem
will affirm that the sixth day of the
week is adjacent to the seventh day
of the week that the Jews observe.
The Jewish seventh day is also
adjacent to the first day of the week
that is observed by Christians.
Without realizing it,
three antagonistic religions agree on
the synchrony of the weekly cycle. This
proves that time has not been lost.
The seventh day of Creation remains
synchronous with the seventh day of
the week. Mankind typically calls it
by its Roman name, Saturday, but God
still calls it Sabbath.
I hope this helps!
Larry Wilson
