Rise of the Secretly 'Overemployed'

[omni550]

With remote work opportunities, some workers are now working multiple jobs simultaneously. (FIRE is mentioned as a possible motive.)

FWIW, I've met a few of these folks in real life.

https://news.yahoo.com/working-three-full-time-jobs-103301341.html

omni

 

[Qs Laptop]

With remote work opportunities, some workers are now working multiple jobs simultaneously. (FIRE is mentioned as a possible motive.)

FWIW, I've met a few of these folks in real life.

https://news.yahoo.com/working-three-full-time-jobs-103301341.html

omni

Good article describing how people do this sort of double dipping.

A couple of my son's friends are software engineers (coders, basically) and they have a couple of jobs. Fully remote jobs, one on the East coast the other on the West coast. They have to make sure their Zoom meetings don't interfere with each other. They also have to be careful with their LinkedIn profiles and they don't tell many people what they are doing as it might be inadvertently discovered by their employer(s). They are making $300K working at home about 25-30 hours a week total.

 

[Lewis Clark]

This has been common for years with people working multiple part time jobs, or a full time job with one or more part time jobs. The rise in work-from-home opportunities made this inevitable.

 

[dmpi]

If a job actually required 100% level of effort then this would not be possible.

 

[Aerides]

So, it would seem some managers have no idea what their staff are doing, don't give them goals or assignments or objectives...

Or...they are so damn good and their roles are in such high demand, their managers don't care - the work gets done and gets done well.

 

[Lewis Clark]

So, it would seem some managers have no idea what their staff are doing, don't give them goals or assignments or objectives...

I used to have a co-worker who would typically spend 3 or 4 hours most days chatting and visiting with friends in the workplace. He had been there a long time and knew many people. The manager either didn't know or didn't care.

 

[ClarkeK]

If a job actually required 100% level of effort then this would not be possible.

Exactly. I read this article while thinking of my old j*b. There is no way I would have been able to pull this off while w*rking in aerospace procurement. Too many meetings, schedules, deadlines.

 

[JoeWras]

I have read about this trend and I'm dumbfounded. There was no way I could do this.

Add to that, all of my employers had me sign an agreement that if I worked a second job in the same industry, I had to disclose it so a conflict of interest could be ruled out. And if caught doing it without disclosure, I can guarantee you that not only would my last Megacorp fire you, they'd lay a lawsuit on you too.

Very strange world. No wonder the bosses want people back at the office.

 

[Aerides]

I used to have a co-worker who would typically spend 3 or 4 hours most days chatting and visiting with friends in the workplace. He had been there a long time and knew many people. The manager either didn't know or didn't care.

This is what gets me when ppl complain that WFH folks aren't working as much as those in the office. They seem to forget just how much time is wasted like this.

 

[HawkOwl]

Exactly. I read this article while thinking of my old j*b. There is no way I would have been able to pull this off while w*rking in aerospace procurement. Too many meetings, schedules, deadlines.

I disagree with this, at least as a blanket statement. Most people’s jobs (and the workers themselves) aren’t so all-important that it requires their entire waking existence. For most jobs (with some exceptions such as your aerospace industry) “satisfactory” work does not require absolute and total devotion.

 

[pb4uski]

As someone who worked remotely a lot for the last 13 years of my career this is disturbing.

I could never have gotton away with anything like this between traveling for work in the field, last-minute conference calls, etc.

Now that said, I was on 50% schedule for many years and none of my clients knew and I suspect that many of my colleagues knew either... if I was 50% time or 100% time they would only get a piece of me either way... but my bosses and peers in my practice unit were all aware of it.

 

[braumeister]

My cousin the air traffic controller says that remote working never caught on in her industry.

 

[pb4uski]

This is what gets me when ppl complain that WFH folks aren't working as much as those in the office. They seem to forget just how much time is wasted like this.

+1 I felt I was much more productive working from home. In the office a colleague would pop their head into my doorway and end up walking away 45 minutes later of which 10 minute was business and 35 minutes were chit-chat. While that could happen on a phone call, it seemed to be less so.

 

[Qs Laptop]

This is what gets me when ppl complain that WFH folks aren't working as much as those in the office. They seem to forget just how much time is wasted like this.

Now add in the forty-five minutes to an hour spent driving to and from work.

 

[ls99]

It is OK w*rking multiple jobs for a long time. Burnout and early death will cure it.
Once in my life had three j*bs at the same time, 4 hrs of sleep per night if lucky, six month later decided life was more important than $$$.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I have read about this trend and I'm dumbfounded. There was no way I could do this.

As someone who worked remotely a lot for the last 13 years of my career this is disturbing.

I could never have gotton away with anything like this between traveling for work in the field, last-minute conference calls, etc.

This is the new reality. I think coders can get away with it because of the stereotype, right or wrong, that they are introverts and kind of eccentric. Also, coders have their daily stand up meetings at the same time each day and then they are turned loose to their keyboards. The east coast/west coast dynamic of having a three hour time differential works in their favor.

 

[pb4uski]

But would't employers have some way to monitor that those coders computers are actually being used with keystrokes, clicks, etc. when the coder is supposed to be working on the employer's dime?

 

[badatmath]

Very common in my last years of WFH for certain. And the amount of people using drugs/alcohol during work was way up.

Keystrokes were only monitored at very low level jobs IME. The so called "professional" jobs did not use it where I was. Like a call center would be heavily tracked but a programmer nah. And hell managers were big abusers of these things as well.

My neighbor goes to the gym and to grocery store while "working". He just assumes no one will notice. He was out trimming bushes today during "work".

 

[youbet]

Shouldn't WFH employees be measured by accomplishment? Attend meetings/group sessions as scheduled. Then, meet deadlines for deliverables by turning in high quality work on time. Execute the work on your own schedule. If your choice of work schedule leads to missing a deadline or poor quality work, bear the consequences without whining.

 

[JoeWras]

Well I was a software engineer, mostly doing coding, so I'm very familiar with the process whether it be agile stand up meetings or traditional waterfall. I've also had the ability to work from home for various tasks since 1985. Yes, 1985.

The sheer volume of our projects wouldn't allow this double dipping. I did have a few colleagues who moonlighted as bartenders. They did it mostly for socialization. It was just a few hours a week.

One more thing: no wonder so many corps are having their intellectual property stolen.

 

[marko]

Back 40 years ago we had an engineering guy who would disappear for a few hours each day. Turns out he had a second job at another company across our shared parking lot! It went on for a few years.

He finally got caught when the two CEOs were having drinks one time and each started complaining about "this one guy who's never around"....a light bulb flashed over each of their heads at the same time.

 

[old medic]

My cousin the air traffic controller says that remote working never caught on in her industry.

It didn't in EMS either...

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I disagree with this, at least as a blanket statement. Most people’s jobs (and the workers themselves) aren’t so all-important that it requires their entire waking existence. For most jobs (with some exceptions such as your aerospace industry) “satisfactory” work does not require absolute and total devotion.

Agree about total devotion. However, the standard U.S. workweek is still 40 hours. Are you suggesting its reasonable for somebody to work 2 40 hour/wk jobs?

Those of us skeptical of WFH see our friends/neighbors golfing, tennis, gym, walking dog, grocery store, between 8-5. Can't see them putting 30 hours in. When this allows 2 jobs, something is not right. This is not only EE issue but ER as well. Bad management and leadership leading to poor performance all around.

 

[latexman]

The neighbor across the street has 2 remote FT jobs as like a Planner/Scheduler. They make > $100k/year total.

 

[Aerides]

But would't employers have some way to monitor that those coders computers are actually being used with keystrokes, clicks, etc. when the coder is supposed to be working on the employer's dime?

The problem with those sorts of approaches is you alienate your good folks, and the bad folks just find ways around them. No doubt many a programmer could find a way to simulate a few random clicks being sent out from their keyboard every minute.

Meanwhile, the smart productive responsible self-starting high-achiever on your team says "tracking my keystrokes, are you kidding me?" And bails and finds another job.

My last (and lamest) boss had a little ping set up on his PC whenever one of his team started or left the IM/chat feature that we were required to be in all the time. I remember seeing it when I was in his office one time and thought...oh you don't respect any of us at all... This was a VP tracking his IT Directors.