About a year ago I started working in retail again. It is a small store that is open on Sundays, but with reduced hours and staff. We have four people scheduled for Sundays, out of a total of twelve employees (including management). Not everyone is free on Sundays, so it ends up being the same three people every week with the managers taking turns. One of the people working every Sunday is me. I recently found out that one of my coworkers who never works on Sunday is refusing to do so because he believes that it is wrong for him to work that day.
Here are my questions:
Is it wrong to refuse to work on a Sunday if it means you are forcing someone else to work on that day against their beliefs? The reason I don't want to is because it is hard for me to get there on time, especially if church runs late and my parents decide they want to hang around and talk afterwards (I am depending on them for rides right now, long story). So for me, it is not entirely a matter of believing that it is wrong to work that day, as long as I get another day off that week to rest. I just prefer that day off be Sunday, so I am not stressed after church trying to get to work on time and so that I can stay after church and talk to people if I need to. But if he was causing me to violate my conscience in working on a Sunday, would that be wrong of him? We could at least alternate. A compromise could be reached.
Another question is this:
Is it important that the day off from work be Sunday, or is that being too legalistic? The pastor of the church I went to before the one I am at now taught that it didn't matter which day of the week you had off from work, as long as you had a day of rest.
Also:
Prior to this past June, I worked two jobs for seven months straight with almost no days off. I wanted to have a day off but couldn't afford it. Was it wrong for me to not take any time off work, even if my finances would have suffered for it? I was saving up so I could afford to visit my husband, as well as paying other various bills. To me, it would have been wrong for me to not visit him, as it is important that we spend at least some time together and it looks like it will be a while yet before we are able to live together.
I pretty much already know where I stand in all this, but I want to hear other people's viewpoints.
Here are my questions:
Is it wrong to refuse to work on a Sunday if it means you are forcing someone else to work on that day against their beliefs? The reason I don't want to is because it is hard for me to get there on time, especially if church runs late and my parents decide they want to hang around and talk afterwards (I am depending on them for rides right now, long story). So for me, it is not entirely a matter of believing that it is wrong to work that day, as long as I get another day off that week to rest. I just prefer that day off be Sunday, so I am not stressed after church trying to get to work on time and so that I can stay after church and talk to people if I need to. But if he was causing me to violate my conscience in working on a Sunday, would that be wrong of him? We could at least alternate. A compromise could be reached.
Another question is this:
Is it important that the day off from work be Sunday, or is that being too legalistic? The pastor of the church I went to before the one I am at now taught that it didn't matter which day of the week you had off from work, as long as you had a day of rest.
Also:
Prior to this past June, I worked two jobs for seven months straight with almost no days off. I wanted to have a day off but couldn't afford it. Was it wrong for me to not take any time off work, even if my finances would have suffered for it? I was saving up so I could afford to visit my husband, as well as paying other various bills. To me, it would have been wrong for me to not visit him, as it is important that we spend at least some time together and it looks like it will be a while yet before we are able to live together.
I pretty much already know where I stand in all this, but I want to hear other people's viewpoints.
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