Above And Beyond

The very concept of going above and beyond  as a moral necessity is something promoted by a certain kind of parent, employer, or other party, usually with the promise or implied hope that some significant reward will follow, even if it is only self-satisfaction.  With the workplace, the possible benefit is an eventual raise or promotion, though people could hold to this notion of going above and beyond in other contexts as well.  But having pragmatic benefits does not mean something must be done in a moral sense, only that it might result in a given objectively or subjectively favorable outcome.

Some employers act as if they basically think that an employee who does not go "above and beyond" the literal base requirements of their job is a poor worker, or at least one that somehow still merits condemnation or suspicion even if they have done nothing irrational or immoral, although they would very likely not get immediately paid more and perhaps not get noticed in a proportionate way for complying with these asinine overexpectations.  Likewise, some people think that it is really a moral duty to go above and beyond the actual obligations to other people and treat them with greater kindness, affection, or consideration than what is required by their moral system, such as Judeo-Christian ethics.

By nature, going above and beyond is utterly unnecessary to being a rational or righteous person precisely because it is above and beyond.  It can be a good thing, but it can never be mandatory, and thus it is erroneous to think that anyone who passively or actively (and therefore intentionally) shirks from going past what is truly required of them by reason and morality is in the wrong.  If kindness is morally good, for instance, one can be kind without spontaneously reaching out to all of one's friends or neighbors to check on them, putting on a "kind" facial expression in the presence of others, or doing anything else that is not in itself necessary in order to be kind.

Doing the "bare minimum" to uphold this or any other obligation—not that Biblical ethics is really about kindness at its core as opposed to truth and justice—or to carry out a job is really all that is necessary.  If something was not the bare minimum, some other criteria would be, and if there is a minimum threshold, then anything above that is by default above and beyond.  Above and beyond is inherently unnecessary.  This is such a simple truth that many parents and employers overlook to their own stupidity.  Everyone needs only to align with reason and morality to be in the right, at which point they can see the folly of anyone who would pressure others to do more than this.