I used to work in the kitchen (mostly the grill) at different times, sometimes I'd get out midnight and would be forced to open at 4am which was insane. My schedule was a constant mess but I needed the job so I pushed myself through it because there weren't many places hiring.
Anyways here's how I worked, I made sure everything was restocked, swept and mopped the floors, would make sure everything was polished, would take out the trash if it was full, all while managing cooking food at the same time. Now once all the tasks were done, everything was spotless, and enough meat was cooked, I would just stand in place and do nothing, which my older coworkers HATED. They would tell me to do something to which I would say there's nothing left to do and that I'm just resting, which they couldn't fathom whatsoever. The kitchen lead, a lady in her mid 50s, was constantly on the move even when everything was clean and the orders were done, and when she would see me stand she'd make me do stuff like clean the walls and behind the grill, things that closers were supposed to do.
I hated it, and it spread among the older people about how I was lazy and would just stand still, again, after doing all my work, and when I got confronted I would always say, “what's the point of adding more work if we're still getting paid the same by the hour, I'm just conserving my energy, everything's clean and stocked up” and even after that they still couldn't understand my mentality. We were working for 7.25 for greedy, racist, millionaire owners who barely gave raises, and looked down on their employees for having to pay them, and I had already capped at 9.50 so there was really no point in going above and beyond anymore.
The kitchen leader one day told me the reason she worked so hard was because the owners helped fund a birthday party for her kid which she couldn't afford, bouncers and everything, and was so grateful that she had to repay it back with hard work. I was wowed at first until she said she was still paying the money back to them… to which I just let out an “oh…” and she could see my disappointment. If you're a millionaire owner paying your employees minimum wage, is it really that hard to cover a birthday party without having the employee pay you back?
Anyways I always felt like the odd one out thinking like that but I don't regret it, the older people burned themselves out and quit including the team lead, who go fed up with the owners, and I left shortly after that. Even though I didn't go above and beyond like they wanted me to, at the end of the day I still made the same money that they would've made and now that we're all gone, it's not like anyone will even remember our work ethic or tell tales about our endeavors. Life just moved on. At one point working harder did pay off but for how little a lot of places pay, it just isn't worth it. There's no point in burning yourself out for crumbs while the owners get millions if not billions of dollars just from being at home and off your hard work.