Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

You should make sure you and your manager(s) are on the same page. It would be unfortunate if you think they are happy with your work just to get in trouble later on for working less hours than what your getting paid for.

Think of it this way. If you can get away with so little work while being recognized as a solid contributor, you must be extremely competent: where a newbie sounds the entire day on busywork to find a solution, you just see the solution and spend the rest 7 hours reading HN. Also, when was the last time your manager approached you with a conversation "hey, out company is doing much better, so we wanted to double your pay and give you this expense card to pay for flights, hotels and restaurants, wherever those might be"? The company isn't seeking an opportunity to spend more money on you, so you should be doing the same. It's just a business relationship.

If your employer is happy with you, there is no reason to 'feel guilty'.

Being competent (top 20%) and working 3hrs / day is way more productive than a middle performer working 12 hrs / day.

In my personal experience:

I work with people that, in 5 minutes, I can accomplish more than they can in a day. And those people are not stupid / unmotivated.

I also work with people that, in 5 minutes, can accomplish more than I can in a day. I'm not stupid, or unmotivated.

Some people are just more experienced, have better judgement, are smarter etc.

Output is what counts, not time.

In the past I’ve hired engineers on a per hour basis; we agree on the hour count while we plan the tasks.

Sometimes it takes them more hours than we planned, sometimes less, but our contract stays the same. There is nothing moral/amoral around them being efficient or padding their estimates IMHO.

I don't necessarily agree with that.

Having free time enables you to either upskill yourself and to move to a more lucrative position later, or perhaps even work on side projects.

Some people freelance and both get practical skills and an additional source of income (even though a somewhat inconsistent one), whereas others enjoy trying to create their own SaaS solutions which could serve as a passive income, in the age of widespread web APIs and things like Stripe making payment processing easier.

Heck, some people actually enjoy doing things that are completely unrelated to the ICT sector, so woodworking/carpentry/farming and so on could also be both nice sources of income, as well as a way of getting some fresh air and/or exercise in an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.

Of course, even if some of the free time is spent not generating income but instead doing stuff like working out, that could also both improve one's quality of life and also cut down medical expenses, as well as indirectly make them more productive at their regular work due to better alertness, which may or may not further contribute to how effectively they can use those hours that they have.