Laziness at Work is Stealing from Employers

Unfortunately, laziness is among the most popular of sins nowadays. The reason for this is because people feel that their own laziness does not directly harm or offend another individual. While this may be true in some situations –although still not excusable, there are other conditions wherein one’s laziness does in fact wrong one’s neighbor.

For example, a man who works as a janitor is tasked to clean the entire school. However, because of his laziness, he only cleans the areas of the school that are visible to most people. He does not bother cleaning inside closets, under stairways, or in unused rooms. Even though the janitor has much free time left to complete his job thoroughly, he uses this time to laze around or attend to personal affairs.

The janitor is violating the 8th commandment because he is indirectly stealing from his employers. He is not accomplishing his end of the agreement. Because he is underperforming at work, the salary he is being given is disproportionate to the amount of effort he puts in.