I'm a IT freelancer. And I have switched from hourly jobs to "projects". I do not get paid by the hour, I get paid by the project.

Now I do multiple jobs at the same time, while waiting on one, I work on the other. And as long as the job is done: all is well, no one should care how many hours I spent on them.

Perhaps we should all move to the "what needs to get done" mentality and get paid for the job and not for the hours present.

In that case it no longer matters how many companies I work for.