Question:
Hi
I have a question about something that happened many years ago. Before and straight after I was married, about 25 years ago, I worked in a non-Jewish law firm in Australia as an articled clerk (first year out of law school) and then junior lawyer for 2 years after that. My husband and I are baal teshuvas and that was prior to us adopting full Torah life.
Sometimes when I found myself without a task to do, I would ask around for work but then just pass the time by looking up recipes and exchanging them with others. I have no idea how much time this took up, but it was often done during work hours (though there were no set hours and no requirement that we specifically work a certain amount of time). Eventually I was asked to change departments due to my low performance rate. I do not remember doing this again in the new department due to the greater workload and then leaving due to pregnancy.
Should I contact the firm now and apologise? Do I need to reimburse them for wasted time? If so, how would I calculate this?
I would appreciate your advice.
Thank you very much for your time.
Answer:
Hello,
It is very impressive that you are so concerned to take care of such old issues. Practically though, you do not have to reimburse them for what was not done. This is for a few reasons, one of them being that it isn’t clear that you were wasting your employers time when there wasn’t work for you to do.
Best wishes
