The economy is tight, and many are worried about making rent or having enough in their savings – so much so that Yahoo News reported 70% of Americans are trying to get more work to stay afloat. But what would happen if you didn’t just pick up a side hustle to do a few days a week after work and picked up another full-time job? That’s just what over-employed people are doing and believe it or not, the trend is more prevalent than you might think.

What is overemployment?

Overemployment means having two or more full-time fully-remote jobs at one time. More than just a side hustle, overemployment means logging into multiple Slack channels on multiple work laptops and convincing multiple companies that you’re on the clock all day. Some people actually complete their work for every job they have, and others just get a job and then wait around to get fired, as there’s always another job on the horizon. Either way, they’re both earning more than just one salary, which is the ultimate goal of overemployment: what these employees call “financial freedom.”

Overemployment was a rarely-seen phenomenon before the pandemic, as remote work wasn’t remarkably common. But as knowledge workers began staying home during the pandemic, people began realizing that they could earn two salaries simultaneously by simply getting another job and keeping it to themselves. Overemployed people first temporarily take down their LinkedIn accounts, interview for roles as if they’ve just left the job before their current job and use previous jobs as references, and explain away gaps with thrilling stories of personal development. Then, once their second job is acquired, they work from home with two (or more) laptops in front of them. They do poorly at one or more of the jobs they sign up for, get fired within a couple of months, and start the process all over again.

The overemployment game remained under the radar until earlier this year. Recently, overemployment came into the public eye through a LinkedIn post by practice management software Canopy’s CEO Davis Bell. Bell fired two of his engineers when he discovered they had other full-time jobs, saying that their discretion has “core moral issues” and involves “lying and deception.” 

Why do people do it?

Some reading this are probably thinking, “the job I have is hard enough – why would I want two?” In some ways, overemployment is the perfect job for several types of people: someone who does their work more quickly than their managers can assign it, someone who doesn’t value the concept of a job at all, or someone who wants to focus their entire lives on getting rich quickly.

The salary

It’s no joke – being overemployed means bringing home the bacon. Workers claim that they’re earning more than $700,000 per year, working multiple full-time jobs at one time. And even if they have to work 12 or 14 hours at a time, they can save or earn a ridiculous amount of money. The overemployed have the ultimate goal of leaving the lifestyle behind as soon as possible at any cost.

The community

Some people love to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and there are so many places that overemployed culture thrives online. There are dozens of social media forums, websites, platforms, and other resources. Folks gather on the r/overemployment Reddit forum and talk shop about their favorite mechanical mouse-jiggling tools for jobs that necessitate time-tracking software or tips on “hibernating” your LinkedIn, so you don’t get caught. Other resources like Overemployed.com offer clickbait-type articles promising the joys of “reaching financial freedom” and a Discord server full of anonymous trolls talking a big game about their earnings.

The cred

Many people have trouble keeping up with the work necessary for one job – and that’s why overemployment is so much of a flex for so many. Overemployed people revel in the fact that they can do the bare minimum for as many jobs as humanly possible while earning the same amount of money as their coworkers. And the internet is the perfect place to anonymously brag about how much money you make “scamming the system,” meaning that overemployment forums are just as important to the culture as the jobs themselves.

The ethicality of overemployment

Much like Davis Bell, many believe that overemployment is unethical. It breaches the contract that one has with their primary employer, who is operating under the assumption that they’re paying for a certain amount of your time. You’re taking a job that an unemployed person would probably love to have. You’re forgoing your relationships with your coworkers and managers, who probably notice that you’re off the radar at some point. And you’re doing yourself no favors – building no skills, and learning no new tools – by valuing money over the content of your jobs. But does all that mean you’re operating unethically?

Contrary to what it might seem, there are definitely ways to have more than one job that isn’t problematic. This is especially the case if you work quickly, often wait on coworkers to answer questions at a snail’s pace, or feel like your job doesn’t assign you the right amount of work for your abilities. But if you really do feel that way, pick up some side hustles or even another part-time job.

And while this might seem outlandish, if you’re someone whose job is head-down intensive, two full-time jobs might not be so difficult. In fact, one crafty engineer created a script that does his job perfectly, requiring only one or two hours of work per week from him – plenty of time for another full-time job. It’s when your overemployment begins to impact the quality and quantity of your work that you need to think about if you have more than one job for manipulative reasons. So if you’re considering overemployment, first, slow down and think about the old adage: do you want it done fast or do you want it done right?