Is it ethical to be working two full-time jobs?

I recently came across a post that highlights a disturbing trend. Some white-collar workers are working from home and holding down two full-time jobs without explicit consent from their employers. 

As it turns out, I know someone who has had first-hand experience of this unethical practice with not one but two colleagues in recent weeks. In other words, it is real.

Some unscrupulous defenders of this practice have suggested that this is a practice to be admired. They say that if you hire someone to build a shed at $100/hr for 20 hours ($2,000) and they complete it in 10 hours, you still owe them $2,000. 

That may be true if you're being paid by the job. But a full-time job is precisely not that. When you're done with your assigned tasks, you're expected to look around and see how you can make yourself useful by mentoring and helping colleagues, picking up stories from the backlog, refactoring your own code, resolving technical debt, getting to know your team members, etc. 

Not unrelated to this travesty is the concept of a "side-hustle" that also tends to be lionized by many. In my mind, this is also squarely in the gray zone. If you're spending your evenings and weekends engaged in real estate ventures (for example), it is entirely likely that you return to work not refreshed but exhausted. 

Undoubtedly, those of us who are working not only a full day but occasionally more than that at our only job feel as if we are compensating for those who aren't. So, either we all get to game the system openly or none of us do. 

And this goes to the heart of why employers often make such a big deal about wanting employees to work from the office, and always be seen to be online, and so on. Those of us who are breaking this trust are responsible for employers pushing for everyone to feel like inmates or return to the office as soon as the Covid pandemic shows signs of subsiding.

This is despite the fact that those of us who are not gaming the system are actually more productive working from home. In the end, it seems like a lose-lose proposition for employers and those of us who want to operate ethically.

In summation, I have come up with this checklist of Signs that your co-worker might be working two full-times jobs and taking you for a dummy. 

  • Avoids being on video
  • Takes a long time to unmute
  • Often asks you to repeat the question
  • Joins calls on his/her phone rather than computer
  • Often claims to have problems with the internet (e.g. if simultaneously asked to speak on meetings for both employers)
  • Misses meetings and prefers to message instead
  • Has a missing or out of date LinkedIn profile
  • Demonstrates poor productivity
  • Avoids taking initiatives
  • Never volunteers to look into something that needs doing
  • Seems to do the bare minimum
  • Offers to work unconventional hours
  • Isn't explicitly asking for work when s/he is idle (e.g. if all of his/her stories are done)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Milwaukee Appliance Hand Truck

Image
Milwaukee Appliance Hand Truck, leaning against my shed Also known as a cart or a dolly. The model is HDA700. I paid around $120 for it. Here's a list of the features. Wrought iron frame 800 pound load capacity 6 inch non-marking wheels (solid, non-inflatable, never go flat) Stair climbers to help move loads up and down stairs and curbs Padding to prevent the cart from damaging the appliance (this is the white strip in the picture above) Belt or strap that goes around the appliance to secure it to the cart and keep it in place Manual ratchet belt tightener, the buckle-like part at one end of the belt (more on this below) Belt tightener handle (this is the red handle in the picture above) to add more tension to the belt once the manual ratchet has been used to the tighten the belt  I recently used this hand truck to move a big ass 320 pound refrigerator out of my garage (where it was delivered) and up a couple of steps to the deck, up one more step through the doubl...
Read more

My Experiments with the PICAXE 08M2+

Image
PICAXE 08M2+ I generally prefer to do things the hard way. For example, you can either microwave a frozen dinner or cook from scratch. The microwave option is a good backup plan, but cooking from scratch has far too many advantages, as I outlined in a recent blog post on the do-it-yourself way of life. In the electronics and robotics world, the analogy of cooking from scratch is to build circuits using a bare bones micro-controller chip (e.g. the PICAXE ) rather than a fancy board (e.g. the Arduino ). Therefore, once I get a circuit working with the packaged Arduino approach (e.g. this robot I built recently), I usually try to replicate the circuit using more basic components like the PICAXE. My decision to consider the PICAXE was influenced by Charles Platt's coverage of it in his awesome book Make: Electronics . But essentially, I am a minimalist and I want to see how much I can get done with a bare bones chip rather than a bulky board-based micro-controller like the Ar...
Read more

Utility trailer buying guide

Image
Introduction I recently bought a utility trailer . (I'll explain momentarily what that is and why you might consider buying one.) Going through the process (research, preparation, purchase, registration, setup and maintenance) has taught me that it's not a simple endeavor and very little good documentation exists in the public domain (e.g. on the Internet). Hence, this post. Research In dictionary terms, of course, "to trail" means "to follow" (or to trace the path of a primary vehicle). Alternately, Wikipedia defines a trailer as an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle. So, let's get acquainted with what a utility trailer is and why you might consider buying one. If you're a hardworking, blue collar American you probably already have one -- it's the back half of your pickup truck . Well not quite, but that's the reason Australians refer to a pickup as a utility vehicle. A pickup is characterized by the presence of a flat...
Read more