They’re being paid to do a job, not necessarily to spend a specific number of hours doing it. Is the job being done? If the answer is yes there’s no harm that I see.
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George Jetson (show up to work and press a button) but without the commute.
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i work in photoshop and early on learned to take advantage of the automated actions you can create. Like even if it’s something simple like I have to resize 20 documents and save as, I’ll make an action the first time I do it and automate the rest. If you get creative in how you create those actions you can make them do some pretty complicated stuff. it feels so amazing when you have a tedious task and can do an automation and walk away and let your computer work for you.
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Actions can be really useful. But for everyday “automation” the sync settings feature in Lighroom, as well as the export through the print module (which can add borders and do multi image print output) can be a lot easier to do, even if it is not as versatile.
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In fact, this individual was hired as an IT person, so creating scripts is probably part of their job, if only by inference. If he destroys this script upon leaving it would be destroying property the law firm owned and I expect could get him in a lot of trouble. Indeed, even if he wasn’t an IT person, destroying property created while being compensated would I think be dodgy (or, even if he did it on his own time with his own equipment 'cuz “prove that” ). He should just sit back, enjoy the ride and use the extra time to upgrade his skills; that would even be defensible as within the scope of his employ. Jeez, middle class people problems, am I right ? 
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Well depending on where he keeps his computer the flying commute is optional.
Luckily I had these ready to go:
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I have a situation that raises somewhat similar ethical questions. I have been doing a layout job for a client for a bit over a decade and have, over the years, increasingly streamlined and scripted the process so it takes less and less time.
Should I still charge the same since my initial charge was based on it being a three-hour job and I can now knock it out in 15-20mins? My solution has been to make it a set fee instead of a time-charge and to not raise my costs with inflation (so the job has become naturally less expensive over the years). I think this satisfies my conscience.
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If you are doing a contract job instead of a time charge, I’d say that’s fine and even expected. You spent effort in development and automation. If they hire someone different or do it themselves it will take 3 hours and probably be not done as well. If I were in your client’s position I would be happy to be paying you – the job gets done, done right, and someone else takes care of keeping the automation working and up to date. The only point I would be annoyed is if I started getting worse service because the automation only works 90% and you got too lazy to check the output and started sending me bogus output.
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I’m sure there’s better ways of doing things. I’m still using CC 2014 because I own that and the newer version is subscription based and I don’t wanna pay a monthly fee for something I don’t absolutely need. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Ha. My usage of technology has always been that I learn stuff when I need it to do what I want. I’m not proactive about learning new stuff just for the heck of it.
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I’m not a fan of the subscription model, but I also wasn’t a fan of the upgrade pricing for the Adobe suite back when it was a purchase 
There are a few compelling features in the current Photoshop. Select subject is one of them. It’s AI based, and not a “magic” lasso. It can really give you a good head start on masking. Works well enough for many situations, or as a starting point for others.
Totally with you (still on CS13 here). Btw what OS are you using for CS14?
What was the Newsweek article?
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Im still onMojave… specifically cuz I think I have a few apps I like that won’t work on the new OS… this old photoshop may be one of them, I forget…
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Lazy people and hard jobs. Years back we had couple of “living that truth” new-hires who’d also found an easy way to do their jobs: they discretely delegated multiple tasks to members of our then large engineering staff — then take credit for the work. The two “heroes” had likely figured that their genius move would not be detected given the staff size and bustling work environment. Things backfired on them and they were fired after one year. One ended up managing a Jiffy-Lube.
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If it’s a contract job that is not specifically “by the hour,” then you are being paid for the work product, not the time required to produce that work product. It is the same as a carpenter switching from a handsaw to a table saw; you are simply using better tools to complete the product faster. The product still costs what it is worth. You have no cause for ethical concerns here.
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That’s a different story. Exploiting co-workers (or “outsourcing” work to poorly paid contractors overseas and pocketing the substantial difference) obviously isn’t an ok way to be lazy.
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Why does he keep it a secret then. That is my point. He knows he is cheating and so do you.
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He seems to think that he “owns” the script even if he bought the computer it runs on. He developed it on “company” time and using company resources. The firm owns that script.
What does he talk about when he meets with us boss (or do they not meet??)? Imagine what else he could optimize at this firm saving the business a lot of time and money. Which he could leverage for a higher salary and more responsibility (or a better job somewhere else).
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He was advised as such in the Reddit thread and now agrees with that. Better safe than sorry with lawyers.
They probably don’t have a lot of meetings as long as everything is going smoothly. If the managing partner or office manager meets with him more than four times a year I’d be surprised.
If he’s smart he makes those suggestions as a matter of course. Usually such memos are immediately ignored at law firms, but at least there would be a record of his genuinely trying to help optimise things.
He’s making $90k a year (1.6X the median American salary) working maybe five hours a week. $360/hr is a decent effective rate (comparable to a lawyer’s hourly) and he apparently values time more than money. Not everyone is ambitious or needs to support a lavish lifestyle.
It’s not “cheating”. Cheating in this case would be taking their money and not delivering results or taking credit for another person’s work. That’s not happening here.
He says that the firm gives him an 8-hour shift every weekday in which to complete a specific task. They pay him the agreed-upon annual salary for delivering on that task throughout the year, no more and no less.
He apparently is delivering and probably exceeding expectations in terms of results. It’s not incumbent on him to give them the details of how this happens and the managing partner or office manager don’t seem interested enough to ask about them.
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