I had a job once where we'd agreed, up-front, that I'd be given a workload every day, and once I'd got through that, I was finished. After a few months I had my processes down so cold that I was typically done by around 3pm, and off I'd go. If I had to stay after 5:30pm to finish work - which would happen fairly regularly since the machinery needed a lot of maintenance - then I'd happily do so. If a big order came in, and they needed me to come in at the weekend to help, I'd happily do it.

Of course, all the boss saw was me buggering off at 3pm every day, so they stuck me on a 7.5 hour working day. Did I do any more work? No. There wasn't any more work to do. I just slowed down to compensate. Did I stay beyond 5:30 to fix a broken down machine, or come in at the weekend to help catch up on big orders? No chance. They insisted on a 37.5 hour Monday to Friday working week, and that's exactly what they got. Of course, now the relationship had soured, and it was no longer the cushy job it once was, so I looked elsewhere, and was gone within a few months, leaving them totally in the lurch.

They were a small, struggling business that I'd been with since the start, and I was very accommodating of their inability to pay me on time. Months late sometimes. I did't complain, it was all give and take and I'd known up-front this was how it would be. Of course, I was the only person that could run and maintain the machines, so once I was out the door, they went out of business a few weeks later. How do you replace someone with all the skills you need, that you can't pay? Try selling that to someone in an interview. For the sake of a couple of hours a day of me doing busy work, giving the illusion of a full day's work, they lost their business.