There was a time when I would have agreed with you. An early start resulted in an early finish. Still an 8 hour shift, in theory, but you weren’t “working for free” just moving the time frame forward in the day.Free time for RM - I don't think so, you'd have to be brain damaged to do that. More like start early and be home even earlier
However, this is no longer the case in our office. You can start as early as you like but you’re still not going to get your last tray of walk sequenced mail until it arrives along with everyone else and you still have to wait until the miss-sort run is in. So all our early starters just mill about drinking coffee, smoking furiously or chatting to their mates, waiting for last inward deliveries seemingly oblivious to the fact that these days they’re not actually gaining anything by starting early.
Old habits die hard, perhaps? Maybe there are more "damaged" people out there than you realize.