This is a great question. I'm currently in this position, I do more or less no work other than attend meetings other people have scheduled. I agree with the point you made elsewhere in this thread, working harder has more or less no correlation with how your employer treats you, so why should I try to work hard to fix things when everyone else I work with is slacking off too?
I've had jobs where I worked myself to the bone, literally killing myself to be as productive as possible, taking provigil to work more hours, and then I was fired for no reason and with no warning. It turns out the CEO was stealing from the company (I found this out later when he went to prison) and they didn't have money to pay salaries as a result.
I've had jobs where I did no work, turned up to the office one or two days a week and didn't even try to get anything done, but acted confident and knew how to look good in meetings with upper management, and I was promoted and given substantial retention stock grants. They were throwing money at me and asking me to hire people and build a team.
The whole industry is very much like Office Space, it doesn't matter what you do, management are usually completely incompetent sociopaths and can't tell who is working and who is not, would fire you without hesitation if it would make them 2% more likely to get promoted - regardless of how much you work or how much you have accomplished for the company. This is not a question of morality, the people who want you to work are probably doing even less work than you are, and if the shareholders want work to get done they should fire the board and hire competent executives.
I've had jobs where I worked myself to the bone, literally killing myself to be as productive as possible, taking provigil to work more hours, and then I was fired for no reason and with no warning. It turns out the CEO was stealing from the company (I found this out later when he went to prison) and they didn't have money to pay salaries as a result.
I've had jobs where I did no work, turned up to the office one or two days a week and didn't even try to get anything done, but acted confident and knew how to look good in meetings with upper management, and I was promoted and given substantial retention stock grants. They were throwing money at me and asking me to hire people and build a team.
The whole industry is very much like Office Space, it doesn't matter what you do, management are usually completely incompetent sociopaths and can't tell who is working and who is not, would fire you without hesitation if it would make them 2% more likely to get promoted - regardless of how much you work or how much you have accomplished for the company. This is not a question of morality, the people who want you to work are probably doing even less work than you are, and if the shareholders want work to get done they should fire the board and hire competent executives.