Work and Pay

The word 'work' has a very broad definition.  In terms of employment we tend to think of work as the duration of time we are reimbursed for through wage.  However the time we devote to work often extends beyond what we are actually paid for doing.  In many jobs there will be requirements that take up personal time as well as the time we spend at our place of work.

If you think of a rugby player for example, their main place of work ultimately is the grounds and the pitch they play on, and the time they spend at work is the length of the match they play.  Except in their job there is also training, both structured and scheduled as part of a team, as well as unstructured and unscheduled such as working out at the gym.

If you take another example such as a comedian, they are paid for the gigs they perform at.  Those performances can be short as part of a larger show maybe 15 minutes, or they can be long as an entire show on their own, and hour maybe more.  They are paid for the time they are on stage and the number of tickets they managed to sell.  They're not paid directly for the time and effort they spend writing material and rehearsing it to themselves and to people they try out their material on.

Would you rather work in a job where you were paid a lot for a short period of time worked, or be paid the same amount for a longer period of time?  Bearing in mind with the former, you'd be expected to put more effort in outside work, not doing so would reflect in the quality of your work.  Assume in the latter you did not have to do much outside.

To break that down with figures, would you rather:

Work 40 hours a week for £15k p.a. with no work needed to be completed outside those hours.  How good or bad you are at your job won't affect your pay grade, and you get to keep your job as long as you are competent, something which is ultimately decided by someone other than you.

or

Work 1 hour a week for up to £15k p.a. depending on performance, the better you are at your job the more you make, the more natural that work is to you the less time you need to devote to preparation.  Make no preparation and perform badly and you will earn very little if anything, so ultimately it's up to you to decide how much effort you put in.

Admittedly there are less jobs that offer the latter, and it is less secure.  That doesn't necessarily mean it's the worse option from the two.  The third option would be a job that combines the two and offers a base salary and base expectations with the provision of higher pay depending on performance.

Which would you prefer?