The unofficial practice among junior officers of overstating how long a job will take in order to keep some slack, banned by Captain Freeman with chaotic results in Temporal Edict.
Buffer time is the name the lower-deck crew of the USS Cerritos give to an old habit. An officer tells a superior that a task will take much longer than it really will, then finishes early and enjoys the spare time, or looks like a hero.
It is the subject of the Lower Decks episode Temporal Edict. Boimler, who never pads an estimate, lets the secret slip to Captain Freeman. She is already smarting from a slight to her ship, and orders that every task be timed to the minute. The overworked crew fall apart, and they are in no state to resist when the Gelrakians board the ship.
Boimler, the only one thriving, persuades Freeman that rules need room to bend. She restores the old way and names the new rule allowing slack after him, the Boimler Effect, which horrifies him.