Working Two Jobs At The Same Time Without Either Company Knowing

The advent of Covid-19 last year literally turned the world of work on it’s head.

Trends of remote working, which may have taken another five years or so to filter down, had to be implemented literally overnight, and has now changed the manner in which we view the world of work. There has been a paradigm shift in management perception and expectation following the very successful implementation of remote working, and the resultant increase in productivity.

During this same period over the last year and a half, the employee experience was far more different. Whether it was, the fear of redundancies, furlough, boredom, or even the fact that they didn’t believe they were being fairly compensated, there is an underground trend in the States where white collar workers in tech, banking, insurance and other sectors are doubling their pay by undertaking two full-time remote jobs, and for the most part, not working too hard either, with many saying that they didn’t work more than forty hours for both jobs combined.

The Wall Street Journal undertook an investigation and spoke to six people who were doubling their income by working multiple full-time remote jobs as employees or contractors during the pandemic. Working from home in these remote jobs, they successfully juggled two laptops, multiple zoom meetings (and in certain cases even participating in two meetings running concurrently!). Funnily enough, I wrote a blog post recently of how you could automate yourself in zoom meetings.

These workers are completely unapologetic. Given the manner in which Corporate America has treated it’s employees during the pandemic, with largescale redundancies, a lack of loyalty, and at the same time raking in millions in revenue and profit, why should they not play the system too?

However, juggling two jobs isn’t without it’s own stress. For example, a Data Scientist was surprised to receive a video call from his boss, whilst he was in the middle of teaching a coding class. He quickly told the students to take a ten minute break, and he jumped on the video call on his other computer.

There is even a website dedicated to ‘working two remote jobs to reach financial freedom’ called Overemployed which lists twelve rules for working two remote jobs, of which the six highlights are:

1. Don’t talk about working two remote jobs The first rule of working two remote jobs is we don’t talk about working two remote jobs

2. Don’t fall in love with your jobs (specifically your second job) Don’t get attached to the company, brand, or project you’re working on; and make sure which company you want to list on your CV and Linkedin profile.

3. Have a clear and focused goal Know the reason why you are doing the second job — is it to pay off a loan or buy a car etc

4. Have an exit strategy This is predicated on your clear and focused goal

5. Be average Don’t work too hard, try to get recognized or standout in any way and draw attention to yourself.

6. Live to work another day Meet expectations and just do enough that you don’t get fired.

Invariably, this does bring up the issue of legality regarding breach of employment contract, intellectual property, confidentiality clauses, non-disclosure agreements, misrepresentations etc. but apparently, even when found out employers would be unwilling to pursue the matter due to reputational damage. In terms of other applicable laws in the USA, I believe it varies from State to State.

As a UK based recruiter, I do find this an incredible story, and do wander what on earth were the Human Resources Department of the second company doing. Did they not pursue references from his current employer? At the very least, did they not chase up the minimal notion of the dates of his employment at his current company, and his potential start date?

As the old saying goes, ‘give an inch, take a mile’.

Pre-covid, the biggest fear management had was the loss of control and productivity when sanctioning work from home

And in the world of work, without management oversight, is it any wonder that people will find a loophole?

But then again, it is a fine line between micro-management and treating people like adults. This is just a very minor case where a few people are playing the system.