system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: It is not unethical to take advantage of an employer, so long as you are meeting the requirements of the position.

The debate I have been having is whether or not it is okay to take advantage of the ignorance/limited requirements of a job position in order to make your life easier. 

The most common example of this topic is the salaried employee who automates his 40h work week into 5h of work. They submit high quality work on time every week, and slack off for the other 35h. 

I think there are two key aspects to the debate. First, Utilitarian versus Virtue ethics. Is overall happiness maximized? Is it okay to be lazy and withhold truth if so? 

The second is what duty is owed to an employer. Many people I have discussed this with believe that an employee is hired to give their best effort to the company, and as such is under an ethical obligation to tell the employer if they could be doing more work.   I was under the impression that you are hired to do a particular set of tasks, and thus as long as your employer is happy with your performance the number of hours you work is irrelevant (assuming you are salaried).

Additionally, the amount of unethical selfish practices employers regularly engage is enormous. But does eye-for-an-eye work here? How does the power dynamics play into that? 

Clearly, we can't be expected to work at 100% capacity all the time, but where is the line? 

My current position is that employers are self interested and, in our capitalist system, employees should be too. As long as both parties are happy with the arrangement, you are fulfilling your part of the contract and it does not matter if you could be doing more. As such, it is not unethical to do less work that you could be. 

But I recognize this position is ethically shakey, so I am open to changing my view on it. So please, CMV.
gpt
There is definitely potential for it to be unethical depending on what kind of environment it is and what the expectations are. If you have X amount of work to get done in 40h, but you have put time and effort into making the job more efficient, beyond what the original expectations were, it is probably ok. But lets say that you need to get X amount of work done in 40 hours, but you know for a fact that it will only take 15h, but due to your boss not understanding how it works you just flat out lie to them and tell them it will always take 40h. Taking advantage of another persons ignorance can definitely be unethical.