They are not alone. Mary and her partner, who have been granted anonymity to hide their identities, are part of a growing trend called overwork. And there’s a website — overemployed.com — that helps remote workers do just that. It was created by Isaac Price, who, sensing layoffs were coming in 2020, “started my exit plan,” he says of his origin story. “After months of trudging through interviews, I received a job offer.” But the layoff never came, and once she realized she could juggle both jobs at the same time, “it dawned on me, why stop my job at all? That’s when the idea was born.” Unlike the viral office trend of “quiet resignation” that sees many workers only dealing with the bare minimum required of them, people signing up for the overworked life are moving in the opposite direction: burning the candle at so many ends. they can make it by taking multiple full-time paychecks for as long as they can make it. There is a thriving community on Reddit dedicated to the movement. A prominent YouTuber proudly documented his experience dealing with it — including how it went down. Working exclusively from home is almost always key to the entire operation. Mary’s partner, an engineer, was the first to dip his toe into the overemployment pool, applying for a second full-time engineering job paying $90,000 a year in January 2021. Mary decided to follow suit last fall by finding two jobs — one in finance and one in accounting, each paying $60,000 a year for full-time work. “We just looked at the budgets and thought we absolutely need this,” she says of their four jobs, which have doubled their family income to $300,000. That’s a lot of income by definition, but Mary says they need the cash to stay afloat. “It wasn’t about whether we can or not … we have to do it,” he said. She puts in some long hours, as Mary says she averages 12-14 hours of work each day and some weekends. Others online say they are able to swing it without putting in much more than 40 hours a week. And the pandemic is what made it all possible, because of the widespread acceptance of remote work. Mary and her partner intended to only look for jobs that could be done from home full time, because the day one of their bosses calls them into the office, the conversation ends. Although when that happens, “I’d give up,” he said. Even from home, it’s hard to get everything done. She started both jobs around the same time, and at one point was in training modules for both jobs at the same time. “Often I would just have to turn off my camera [and] mute my stuff in one,” he said. “There have been a few times when I’ve been asked to respond to something by both companies at the same time,” he said. you.” Anthony Leutenegger says the pandemic has led to many more cases of tech workers, where he is a manager, signing up for multiple jobs at once. (Anthony Leutenegger) Exact numbers on the trend are hard to come by, but Anthony Leutenegger, Canadian and head of business development at technology company Aragon Labs, says it’s clearly a growing trend, especially in tech. “The reason you’re seeing it pop up more now is because of remote work,” he said in an interview. “You couldn’t do that easily if you were in an office.” As remote and hybrid work becomes more entrenched, he says, so will overemployment. “I think we’re going to see a huge increase in overemployment next year,” he said. The idea of white-collar workers moonlighting at a second job after hours is nothing new, but working two or more at the same time secretly is. While Leutenegger says he has no problem with employees working extra hours for someone else, in his experience, people who try to do too much end up doing a good job for no one. “I’m the type of person who gives 150 percent to the organization I work for, so it’s not something that crosses my mind, nor would I have time to think about it.”
Rising trend
He manages multiple teams, entirely remotely, and says that while he doesn’t think anyone he’s working with currently does, it’s definitely happened in the past. He remembers a former employee who had given notice that he was leaving the company. While doing research on the team at another company that Aragon was going to deal with, it turned out that the employee in question was working there and had been for some time. “I laughed heartily,” he recalls. He wasn’t living up to expectations, he says, and while it wasn’t bad enough that he was going to be let go, “at the end of the day, it’s obvious when someone isn’t giving all the time they’re supposed to, at work,” he said. “I wasn’t surprised at all.” For him, working two jobs isn’t necessarily a firing offense, but he’d rather give the job to someone else “who can probably do a better job and won’t be multi-tasking and less distracted.” Employment lawyer Dennis Buchanan says working for two companies in the same field without anyone knowing is a “red flag” for him. (Dennis Buchanan) But that doesn’t mean those who do are on solid ground, legally speaking. Employment lawyer Dennis Buchanan says that even if a second job is not against anything in the letter of an employment, many of the rules are implied to discourage this type of arrangement. Especially in managerial positions, there is often what is known as a “full time and attention” clause, meaning that the employee is required to “give full time and attention to the job and not go and do other things . side,” he said in an interview. “When you do productive work, they want it to be for them unless they know and have consented otherwise,” he said. “If it’s going to affect your work, if … it’s going to affect your productivity, or basically it’s hours that we expect you to work for us and you work for them, one of those is going to be a problem. “ And of course, anything to do with working for a competitor in the same field is an obvious red flag for him, something Mary says she knows all too well. She and her partner went through their contracts with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they were above board, and while she says no conflicts have yet arisen, she’s well aware of the stakes. “I think we would be fired. I had friends who worked two jobs at the same time. Their employers found out and fired them.” That stress takes its toll, he says. “Every day, you say, this is going to be the day I get fired? Or someone calls us back to the office, every day you’re on alert.” This is a big reason why, even if they don’t get caught, they don’t plan on continuing their overwork plan much longer, because they’ve learned that the risk of burning the candle at both ends is usually exhaustion. “As soon as we can stop working two jobs, we will,” he said. “Not recommended. Not desired.”
