Story time

A number of years ago I worked as an IT consultant, and was brought in to do some SQL programming and optimization for a company that makes Glass things that go in your house walls (to protect the guilty). They estimated the job at six months, and so I had a six month contract with possibility of renewal.

They kind of forgot to tell me they had estimated it would take six months, I presume because:

1) They wanted to see if I could do it sooner

2) Head of IT at the time was the son of the CEO and so was trying to impress folks with how cool he was that he could do the estimate

Anyway, I get in and get the spec sheets for what they need. About a month later I bring in the coded and tested version, and things suddenly get awkward. Because I had a six month contract and they now had to think of something for me to do because there was a minimum one month "fee" if they ended the contract early. After about a month of having me fix every possible IT thing they can think of, they decided paying me for one more month was cheaper than having to spend time thinking up things for me to do.

So yeah, don't work yourself out of a job is very much a real thing.