Many tech companies were completely remote before the pandemic, but the burgeoning Reddit community of r/Overworked, a community of 92,300 members that offers advice and tips on how to juggle jobs without anyone noticing, shows how workers emerging from their offices are freed, can operate under the radar.
Marten holds a weekly consulting session on the community’s Discord channel to help people “optimize their earning potential,” but doesn’t believe there are that many people who hold multiple remote jobs. “I would venture to say that out of every 100 people who are interested, only 20 are able to make it happen, and of that number, only half actually do it,” said Marten, who also lives in the US. . He is one of them. Working 70 hours a week, Marten earns between $150,000 and $220,000 a month as a senior management consultant focusing on strategy and deals, and has spent his 15 years of overtime working on contracts in Big Tech, finance and auditing.
Greg, who works two tech jobs from his California home and earns an annual salary of $200,000, feels a pinch when he works to several deadlines at once. He deals with diary clashes by refusing certain meetings and saying that “a few lies never hurt them, provided they get a good job.”
Recently, however, his second job asked to be tagged in a LinkedIn post — which, of course, his first job would have pointed out his predicament. “I told them a manipulated truth, that I was being hunted by recruiters, so I decided to put my account to sleep,” explains Greg. “I expect these clashes to continue because the work culture in the United States is a death cult. I just have to suck it up until I can retire.”
Most people’s overtime trajectories start with a second job offer and a concrete financial goal. Greg wanted to pay off his student loans and finance home ownership, and is proud of the fact that he no longer lives paycheck to paycheck. Abel wanted to save four months’ salary as a down payment for his home. As they master double, triple, and even quadruple professional life, the temptation to take on another (and maybe another) grows, especially with community encouragement. Greg is looking for his third role and an early retirement plan, while Abel sees how difficult it is not to take a job just like that. “If I had no children and no responsibilities, I would probably be in lane seven,” he says.
Legally, it’s a bit obscure. Most employment contracts will have some sort of exclusivity clause, stating that the employee will devote their working hours to work and not work for anyone else, especially not a competitor. “Having a second job in those circumstances would clearly violate the contract,” said Beth Hale, a partner at CM Murray LLP law firm, which specializes in employment law. “But there’s a good argument to say that even without any clause in a contract, working on another full-time position at the same time doesn’t act in your employer’s best interest, because you can’t possibly do multiple full-time jobs, can you?”
