It seems like the perfect crime. Since remote work became commonplace, more and more people are now working multiple full and part-time jobs without their employers knowing.
Not all roles are conducive to it. You don't want a job with too many time-intensive outputs or a role with lots of planned or impromptu meetings, but somewhere in between is the sweet spot. It takes a certain type of personality, too. Confident enough to blag it, and enough energy to want to do it.
There's a dedicated Overemployed Reddit thread that makes for compelling reading. It's such a rabbit hole of information and stories, it's hard to believe actually overemployed people have time to contribute to it, but somehow they do.
Typically, overemployed people remove their social media accounts, particularly LinkedIn, and are adept at automating parts of jobs that are still manual in many organizations, or even outsource their work at a much lower rate than they are being paid.
For many, it's a short-term solution, allowing them to build funds to buy a home or start their own business. For others, it's a new way of life.
In an era of rising inflation, mass tech layoffs, precarious work contracts and high housing prices, it's understandable that workers are putting their own needs above the company they work for.
Downsides of overemployment
However, it does have knock-on effects. On a day-to-day basis, overemployed colleagues can seem distracted and show a lack of engagement. They might avoid or drop off calls, and can be forgetful when it comes to knowledge of systems and processes – it's hard to keep track of multiple ways of working.
This often results in colleagues picking up the slack, and over time, feeling burnt out. Helping coworkers by covering for them or rescheduling time-sensitive work, or spending time improving their code or reports is time consuming, and this all limits employees from meeting their own KPIs.
In an age of workers adopting a bare minimum approach, as in "lazy girl jobs" and "quiet quitting", it can be difficult to spot who hasn't got the time from who isn't taking the time.
Many overemployed people and quiet quitters aren't reviewing or double checking their own work, nor are they looking ahead and innovating on behalf of the company. With AI hiring ongoing and AI knowledge building across industries, the days of creaming multiple salaries with automated work may be numbered.
Ultimately though, it's up to managers to identify weak performances and pinch points within teams, and to ensure goals and KPIs are met, without unnecessary strain on any one or more team members.
If you're in the market for a new job in 2024, check out the TechSpot Job Board where you'll find new roles advertised daily, like the following three positions...
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Salesforce, San Francisco
Salesforce is focusing on the future with AI, data and CRM and is hiring engineers who are excited about working on large-scale generative AI, natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning. Its Machine Learning Engineers build generative AI services, pipelines and components to enable the development and delivery of Einstein GPT vision, and play a critical role in incorporating AI and Gen AI into the organization overall.
The successful candidates will drive system efficiencies through automation, participate in periodic on-call rotations, and be available for critical issues. Two or more years of ML engineering experience in the industry is required, as is experience with LLMs and prompt engineering, and strong experience in Python, and machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch. Find out more.
Software Engineer, Backend, Hims & Hers, Remote
On a mission to revolutionize telehealth, Hims & Hers work to make personalized solutions accessible, and is currently seeking an experienced Software Engineer. The successful candidate will be part of the growing Fulfillment and Pharmacy Engineering Backend team, and will help to build a platform used to fulfill customer orders and prescriptions, at scale.
Responsibilities include building backend services within the organization's service-oriented architecture, participating in team design sessions, developing high-quality solutions, team collaboration and communication, active participation in retrospectives, and ideation for continuous improvement. Experience in Java, Kotlin, and backend distributed system design with service-oriented architecture is preferred, as is experience hosting services with Kubernetes and AWS. Apply here.
Hardware Developer, IBM, Albany
IBM is seeking a Hardware Developer to work in IBM Research on the systems driving the quantum revolution and the AI era. The successful Back End of the Line (BEOL) semiconductor integration engineer will work with a world-class team on the R&D of the most advanced technology nodes, and will push the boundary of logic technology with IBM's partners and clients worldwide.
Technical expertise required includes basic understanding of CMOS scaling challenges and roadmapping, especially BEOL, plus familiarity with Copper interconnects and dual damascene integration flow, as well as Silicon CMOS technology qualification. Applicants must be willing to work alternate schedules, including some evenings and weekends, and have a degree in physics, material science/engineering or a related area. Find out more here.