Some American employees have found a way to double their wages without working longer hours. This requires bosses who turn a blind eye. Not uncommon in Silicon Valley.
Recently at a start-up meeting in San Francisco: Two software developers talk about their latest startup ideas. One, as it will turn out later, works for Google, the other for Facebook. But the two men apparently spend more time with their startups than with their actual jobs.
In a confidential conversation, the Google employee later admits that he rarely spends more than three hours on his job on an average working day. He dedicates the rest of the day to his own companies. Many of his teammates do something similar: they set up companies, work freelancers for other companies in the afternoons, or pursue their hobbies during working hours. The salary remains that for a full-time position.
The man justifies himself by trying to get 100% involved with Google for a long time. He launched several projects, promoted initiatives by colleagues, and built up a network. But then one project after the other came to nothing in the administration of the large company.
Working for the drawer, nobody likes doing that. That’s why the software developer reduced his working hours at Google. The superiors looked away.
The main thing is no dismissal
Two other Google employees tell the NZZ something similar: Long-term employees in particular are demotivated because they are bored in their jobs or are underutilized. Despite this, managers would not question the performance of their team members because they did not want them to quit.
On average, a Google employee stays with the company for only about two years, despite high wages and good employment conditions. Because many departures in the same team indicate weak management, bosses do almost everything to ensure that their team members do not resign early. This includes the fact that the supervisors turn a blind eye to the working time control, report the Google employees.
As a result, people like the software engineer at the startup meetup can cheat their way through their tenure with minimal effort for years with no repercussions for their behavior.
Tripled the wages
When, due to the pandemic, almost all companies sent their employees to work from home, a surprising number of Americans used the additional freedom to take on a second job. According to opinion poll of the online service “Resume Builder” from autumn 2021, 69 percent of over 1,200 respondents said they had a second job. The majority of them work on their own account, either in their own companies or via a temporary work agency. However, 37 percent of all respondents said they had two full-time jobs at the same time.
How this is possible is shown by reports from employees who exchange views on social networks: According to their own statements, a supply chain specialist has managed to triple his wages thanks to three jobs. The second and third jobs are so similar that he can more or less copy the work, writes he on the discussion platform Reddit.
A «guild» of the «overemployed»
In the English-speaking world, there is now a separate designation for the supply chain specialist’s degree of employment: “overemployed”. For decades, workers in low-wage industries in particular had several jobs in the USA. For example, so-called “working poor” cleaned offices during the day and worked in a restaurant in the evening because the income from a job was not enough to live on.
However, the members of the “guild of overemployed people”, as the highly qualified multiple employees call themselves, often earn six-figure amounts per year in their first job and then take on a second, similarly well-paid position. According to the Resume Builder survey, 4 in 10 double workers make more than $100,000 each in both jobs.
Additional income is the most important motivation. Between 45 and 50 percent of employees with two full-time jobs either want more money to spend, more money to invest, or money to pay off their debts.
However, most of the overemployed will also accept longer working hours in exchange for higher wages. Around a quarter work at least 80 hours a week, i.e. two full hours. However, almost half of all employees with two full-time jobs in the survey responded that they worked 40 hours or less per week.
Putting in the pay of two full-time jobs without putting in too much effort, isn’t that outrageous? That’s what an outsider recently asked himself on the Reddit discussion platform. Most of the responses from the overemployed follow a simple argument: companies wanted to squeeze as much performance as possible out of their employees and pay them as badly as possible. So why shouldn’t employees be allowed to get the maximum out of their employers without exploiting themselves?
Most of the time at work would be used inefficiently anyway, holding unnecessary meetings, chatting with team members, working on projects that would never be implemented. If you eliminate everything social and unnecessary from a working day, the actual task can be completed in a fraction of the time, some overemployees say. According to the credo, the only person who doesn’t do it is stupid.
Unnecessary for some, essential for others
The reasoning ignores the fact that networking at meetings and developing ideas together during the coffee break can also be part of a job. What the overemployed find “unnecessary”, such as getting to know team members better, can be essential for other employees to be able to work productively.
However, there are also people who do not accept a second job out of greed, but primarily because they enjoy their work. An IT team leader wrote as Response to a blog entry on the website Overemployed.com that he was experiencing burnout symptoms from working at Job 1. Even if it sounds more like Boreout: He had the feeling that he wasn’t needed. After that he started “Job 2″ at a startup. «The energy of the small company has recharged my batteries. I now have another reason to get up early.”
The fear of flying
Regardless of the motivation, most employees with two jobs have constant fears of being exposed. With services like Equifax, employers can have the employment relationships of their employees evaluated automatically. Two full-time jobs at the same time are bad for the rest of your resume. In order not to attract attention, double employees even hide their second job from friends and family members.
What can happen if the employer nevertheless finds out about the double life of his employees, is described by a person affected in an comment column on Overemployed.com: He has been sued for fraud, twice, by both of his employers. “I wish I had never done it,” wrote the anonymous user, “now I’m in a mess.”
There are no laws in the USA, Switzerland or Germany that expressly forbid taking on two full-time positions at the same time. However, tech employees in particular often sign contracts that exclude multiple engagements. Addenda to contracts are also common, according to which all employee inventions belong to the employer, even if the idea for this did not arise during working hours. Such circumstances make the situation of overemployees legally complex.
Burnout warning
In addition to these legal pitfalls, multiple employees also have to deal with health risks. In instructions try to advise each other on how to avoid burnout despite double the workload. This is probably one of the reasons why a double employee recently wrote in a comment column: He doesn’t think it’s good for everyone to have two jobs. “You have to be smart, and you mustn’t feel bad about lying.”
However, a guilty conscience does not prevent many double employees from encouraging each other. she recommend Gadgets like a computer mouse that moves itself, so that a possible monitoring program should not notice a long period of inactivity. And they share instructionshow to join two video conferences at the same time.
Double wages are worth it, at least for a limited time, write the over-employed in their online forums. If only there wasn’t the constant fear of being discovered one day.