>The point of a salaried position is that you're a professional filling a role for an organization. That role is not "do tasks assigned".

That's funny because if I hire a company to do some work on my house, they do strictly the tasks assigned and even try to charge me more than agreed. They don't try to make my house better.

Wrong analogy - you hired a contractor, with a specified scope of work.

The right analogy is you hire a full-time handyman (whatever go with it), and you come home to find them on your couch in the middle of the day, their excuse is I fixed the dishwasher, and your response is likely to be “I’m not paying you to sit on the couch, go change the ac filters, fix the garage door, and re-seal the deck”

I've never read a contract that outlines job duties as "spend time working to make stuff better." Mostly they have a list and then 'tasks as needed/assigned.'

If you want people to work beyond the bounds of their contract, then renegotiate the contract.

Yep, and part of that as needed/as assigned is to notify your supervisor that you are done with your assigned tasks and are ready for a new one, if they don’t have one for you great, play minesweeper, but if you’re done with your assignments (seriously who is ever in that position), and don’t say so, now you’re acting deceptively.

I don't see 'notify your supervisor when tasks are complete' as part of most contracts either; it wouldn't be there, really, because beyond really basic stuff that actually creates way too much information for the supervisor to go through.

Without it being in the terms, it's not a duty you have to fulfill. It's not deceptive not to do favors for your supervisor.