“Overemployment” – thoughts and considerations
Remote work, multiple full-time jobs, and questionable interests
Although the notion of double, triple, or quadruple and above dipping is not novel, there have been very distinct and unique changes in the approach to this by many that have been heavily influenced by pandemic-related alterations in work structures and environs. A number of discernible shifts regarding the manner in which productivity and life satisfaction are measured and achieved have taken place in recent times. Quiet quitting, remote and hybrid work, and a host of additional changes are amongst the many responses by employers and workers that have arisen in the past few years. Another technique to take advantage of the newly evolved construct set in motion by these recent transitions has garnered the moniker of overemployment.
In short, many individuals are seeking and taking on more than one position in a manner that puts them at odds with a typical moonlighting or side gig role. Indeed, many have been juggling 3+full-time jobs at the same time while collecting pay and benefits fully scaled for each particular position.
This method of operating in the workforce would generally not find significant traction in positions such as sales, recruitment, or others with specifically defined expectations and quotas that require significant and focused effort on a single domain. There certainly have been those who sought to spread wins and numbers across more than one organization to keep more than a single entity contributing full salaries, but this has been fairly constricted in scope and reasonably easy to discover and ameliorate within a short amount of time. However, with the wide-reaching changes brought about by timely events, many other specializations have been targeted due to unique or lax boundaries or a simple need for a relatively competent employee that leaves them more suited to being leveraged for dual or greater full-time employment.
Old issue, very new parameters
The growth of the number of individuals who are attempting to take on more than one full-time job has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. The wholesale changes brought about by the aforementioned cultural and business-related shifts that have prompted extensive remote work solutions have not only made it easier to conduct duties from home, but it’s also become much easier to seek and accept multiple salaried positions that are far different than a traditional second role. Many people simply show up for online meetings and do the bare minimum to maintain their status in the slot for a preassigned amount of time. How this is determined is simply often whatever is deigned appropriate given one’s particular needs and associated thoughts on how long they can effectively get away with it.
Rationalization
Along with the obvious desire to accumulate the monetary and benefits grants from more than one job, many individuals feel that taking this approach to employment is justified given the large increase in overall productivity that has been realized in the past decade. Contrast this with effective stagnation of pay rates and high rates of debt combined with skyrocketing inflation seen in recent years and the temptation to join the ranks of the overemployed certainly may be viewed as attractive from many perspectives. Based on our discussions with a number of people, there is a tangible belief that companies have little to no loyalty and are seeking to minimize employee outlays as much as possible thus why not take advantage of a situation that can be exceptionally lucrative and often require a minimal amount of toil.
Potential response by employers
A clear action that may and will most likely be taken by many companies due to their view of overemployment as ill-advised at best is to reduce or eliminate full-time workers and begin to package various needs to be taken on as singular projects that are paid for by the parcel. They may also seek to keep individuals fairly close at hand in what is essentially an on-call basis and utilize them only when necessary.
Employers will also begin to implement more direct and immersive approaches to employee monitoring in order to minimize this type of activity as much as possible. Indeed, the changes brought about by events of the past few years have seen a rapid increase in relevant solutions and utilization – AI and Performance Monitoring in the Workplace.
Additional steps that will undoubtedly be implemented include a more stringent requirement to adhere to detailed outside employment policies, greater IP protection guidelines, and various forms of noncompete agreements.
Many companies will also certainly outright fire individuals who have been found to violate real or perceived codes of conduct. Indeed, Equifax recently axed two dozen employees after monitoring their activities and determining that these workers were operating outside expected guidelines.
As for legal considerations, there are few restrictions in place at the state and federal levels thus most possible inflection points will be found within employment contracts via full-time and attention requirements – many of which will require an individual to channel direct working hours solely to their enterprise. There is also a potential argument to be made that even without formal clauses that address this issue it is still a simple matter to erase a person from the position if they are simply found to not be working in the best interest of the company. Given this, it will come down to a decision by each organization as to whether or not they will make relevant discoveries an issue they view as actionable from a termination perspective. Workers who choose to take the overemployment route will have to weigh these considerations fully before embarking on this path.
An approach that will undoubtedly continue to grow in today’s environment
There are very few signs that taking on more than one job in this manner will abate any time soon. The technologies available combined with pandemic-related shifts and economic factors make it far too attractive to many individuals who are in a position to do so. The manner in which companies choose to respond to a perceived loss in productivity, quality of work, and simple loyalty will dictate a great deal of the course this latest trend will follow.