Hundreds of thousands of Americans juggled two full-time jobs in September, and nearly 4 million more mixed full-time with part-time jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This “overemployment” trend has become so popular due to the pandemic that Wired reported that some workers described having two jobs as the cure for burnout experienced by having just one job. For telecommuters in particular, the opportunity to generate additional income by doing two jobs at once became so normalized, The Washington Post reported last week, that some telecommuters found it “reasonable” to hide a second job from their primary employers.
Some remote workers have learned the hard way that not all employers think it’s fair. It was reported this week that the credit reporting agency Equifax was unwilling to stand idly by as its employees secretly tried to keep a second job. According to Business Insider, Equifax “used one of its own products, The Work Number, to find out who was holding multiple jobs at once” and subsequently fired 24 of the 25 remote workers discovered by the investigation. Some Equifax telecommuters had as many as three jobs.
For the investigation, Business Insider reviewed emails from the company, spoke to current and fired Equifax employees, and reviewed internal Equifax documents. Insider found that Equifax used The Work Number to search “work histories and activity records for more than 1,000 employees and contractors” and see any overlapping payment terms reported by other companies. This information, Insider reported, is usually only provided to individuals who make their own reports, while third parties would typically receive another version that does not provide such detailed information. In addition to dozens of employees that Equifax subsequently fired, the company reportedly flagged 283 contractors who also suspected of double shifting, but Business Insider was unable to verify whether those contractors were also fired.
“Equifax recently conducted an investigation into a number of employees suspected of holding dual, full-time jobs that conflict with their role at our company,” Equifax spokesperson Kate Walker told Ars in a statement. “As a result, several employees were recently fired for violating our Company Code and the External Employment Policy in effect at the time of the investigation.”
Equifax used other employee surveillance methods to determine which employees violated the Employee Code of Conduct. Some employees were suspected of soliciting interviews with Equifax from their other job boards, and Equifax began to notice employees who noted “abnormally low VPN usage,” less than 13 hours a week, as a red flag.
Equifax employees were informed about terminations in a company-wide email that alarmed some. A fired employee who spoke to Insider said he was unaware of Equifax’s code of conduct when he took his second job. A current employee told Insider that Equifax should not use the data it collects for The Work Number to “spy” its own employees.
The Work Number collects employment data from 2.5 million companies, Insider reported, and when two Insider reporters made their own reports on the service, payment terms for “almost every job both had ever held were listed in the report.”
While Equifax’s investigation, which it called “Project Home Alone” at one point, targeted workers with two or more jobs, the company said the violation wasn’t the only reason 24 employees were laid off.
“Equifax followed all applicable laws when dealing with this situation,” Walker told Ars. “These employees were fired due to multiple factors, including in many cases their own admission that they were in secondary full-time employment that prevented them from meeting their full-time obligations to Equifax.”
In its overwork story, Wired reported that people drawn to the trend found support on Reddit, Discord, and a website called Overworkers.com. On forums, double-acting and those looking to take on multiple jobs discuss strategies for doing it all undetected. It seems to be implied on all forums that employees should hide their other jobs from any employer, but Overworkers.com assures visitors that “it is legal to work multiple remote jobs.” The website put together a guide that outlines labor laws in various states.
On the same page, however, Overworkers.com also predicted Equifax’s termination by warning website visitors that employers still seem to retain all power: “The truth is, you could be fired at any time, whether you’re just one or several remote jobs. ”
