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If they're doing what's required, what's the problem?

They don't. Some of them try to raise arguments, that they completed given tasks, but forget to mention that they compromised quality along the way.

Couple years ago, we had a lot of talks saying that engineers should have slack time to polish things. That's kinda counter-productive if slack time goes into working for other companies.

If they’re contracts, they’re not employees and they’re fully in their rights to work for others too. They owe that company no loyalty, and if they’re doing what’s laid out in the contract, there is no expectation for them to do more, either. Nevertheless, I don’t see how this is slacking either way.

If they have agreed to task-based work and that's clear for both parties, then sure. Zero issues there.

If they entered agreement (no matter legal form), that led company to believe that they will dedicate full time equivalent to given company and then did the same with another company, and charge both for full time, then it's obvious scam. It's simply beyond mental capacity of regular human being to carry out such contract.

People tend to rationalize latter one, but they will end on bad side of the layoffs, because it's simply unsustainable to pay full compensation for half-time work.

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