In elementary school, there’s no real goal for your studies. Mostly it’s just coming there, doing the things that teachers want you to do, until the day is over and you get to go.
In that environment, every minute that passes means winning. Every minute takes you a bit closer to being out of there. That’s the real goal: getting out so you can finally do something fun.
How much difference is there really for an employee?
Unless you are doing the “early retirement” thing, your job is also something that will never be done. Doing the tasks only results in getting more tasks; completing a project gets you assigned to another project.
The difference is that you must keep certain non-trivial level of productivity to keep the job. Exceeding this level, however, usually brings little benefit—in worst case it only brings extra work with no benefit; in best case, there is a sublinear reward (e.g. permanently doubling your productivity could result in 30% salary increase).
(It doesn’t necessarily have to be like this. There are situations where doubling your productivity could result in only working half the time—as would be the natural outcome of working for yourself. But in my experience this usually happens informally and unreliably.)
How much difference is there really for an employee?
Unless you are doing the “early retirement” thing, your job is also something that will never be done. Doing the tasks only results in getting more tasks; completing a project gets you assigned to another project.
The difference is that you must keep certain non-trivial level of productivity to keep the job. Exceeding this level, however, usually brings little benefit—in worst case it only brings extra work with no benefit; in best case, there is a sublinear reward (e.g. permanently doubling your productivity could result in 30% salary increase).
(It doesn’t necessarily have to be like this. There are situations where doubling your productivity could result in only working half the time—as would be the natural outcome of working for yourself. But in my experience this usually happens informally and unreliably.)
Depends on how motivated you are to do your job, I guess. If you’re only doing your job to get paid, then it’s as you describe.