> if an employee hired for 8h does 4h more on the side as contractor the employing company gets 'cheated out' of productive time
No, if I'm hired as an employee, it's either to perform specific duties during specific times (hourly pay), or it's to provide my expertise to accomplish tasks given me, with a possible expectation I be available or at a location during certain times (salaried pay). If I'm salary, and my employer expects it will take me 8 hours but it takes me 1, I can relax the rest of the time. Doing so may reflect poorly on me if I'm looking to advance, but that's why employment is a negotiation.
Nobody can provide 100% output 100% of the time they are working if they work 40 hours a week. People aren't built to be able to sustain that rate of work, they can try, but very quickly they are no longer putting out 100% output, even if they are there 100% of the time. So it's fairly obvious people do naturally limit the amount of effort they put into work based on the expected return, which is how it should be.
As an example, it's not unheard of for people to switch jobs for positions that pay less but also have far less responsibility. If you can work half as hard but get 75% the pay, some people will take that if that 75% is sufficient and they've determined that the prior amount of stress was too much.
No, if I'm hired as an employee, it's either to perform specific duties during specific times (hourly pay), or it's to provide my expertise to accomplish tasks given me, with a possible expectation I be available or at a location during certain times (salaried pay). If I'm salary, and my employer expects it will take me 8 hours but it takes me 1, I can relax the rest of the time. Doing so may reflect poorly on me if I'm looking to advance, but that's why employment is a negotiation.
Nobody can provide 100% output 100% of the time they are working if they work 40 hours a week. People aren't built to be able to sustain that rate of work, they can try, but very quickly they are no longer putting out 100% output, even if they are there 100% of the time. So it's fairly obvious people do naturally limit the amount of effort they put into work based on the expected return, which is how it should be.
As an example, it's not unheard of for people to switch jobs for positions that pay less but also have far less responsibility. If you can work half as hard but get 75% the pay, some people will take that if that 75% is sufficient and they've determined that the prior amount of stress was too much.