I’m an ‘overworker’ and have 3 FT jobs - AMA

[SallyGs]

Ive had a few people now mention on the careers topic to do an AMA so am taking the plunge.

An overworker is someone who holds multiple full time roles at the same time. Started in the US and became big during COVID - for obvious reasons as it’s pretty much impossible to do with non remote work.

I currently have 3 full time jobs, at my peak I had 5 during 2020. And am working towards buying a rental property with my additional income.

So for anyone who has wondered about it or are interested in trying it themselves - AMA

It’s a dog eat dog world

I would far rather my daughter grows up to do this than sit like an idiot and ask for more work for the same salary like some clowns on this thread.

3 - my niche is not performance marketing but our performance mkt team is included in my dept (alongside ecom and egrocery)

Would you mind saying what your niche is? Digital marketing seems to cover so much these days.

Yep agree - without outing yourself- what exactly is your main role?

I'm a global b2b tech marketer in a mid sized company. I've done digital marketing roles in larger orgs but in all cases roles are global and I simply don't have the ability to manage my time the way you're able to. I'm in calls- steering committees, team planning, 121s all bloody day long. What role do you have when you're not required to participate in the wider conversation?

I kind of get it.

You don't actually do corporate. I worked in the City up until about your age and realised it was just a Not Good place. So I see that you may have realised that it's all a big silly nonsense and decided to play it. I get that.

I don't care about the companies involved, I do care about the younger people you may be blocking who will never get the opportunity to realise that it's all bollox. They may now be blocked and working in the gig economy or zero hours contracts until they get the opportunity they hope for.

And that's the shitty thing you're doing.

You don't pull the ladder up after you.

You throw it down.

You let them become as cynical as you, IN THEIR OWN TIME.

You are being a young and uber dick.

I don’t have to participate because I start the wider conversation.

I work in the legal and tech side of marketing, that’s the most I will say as it might be outing. I have both a legal and tech background which makes a good combination when it comes to future proofing the companies marketing plans for all the changes when it comes to a cookieless world, and the various legal implications between countries.

I tend to work 3-5 years ahead, so have a lot of grace when it comes to timelines. I’d never need to attend a planning committee, thats what my HODs do. Once you get high enough up the ladder you do less and talk more I’ve found. 5-6 years ago when I was a mid level manager and even into my HOD roles I’d not be able to manage 3 jobs, might have been able to squeeze one extra in but it would have been a struggle due to having more to do on a daily basis.

It also helps I work for a massive organisation, where you get a lot of autonomy and freedom!

I’ll take Uber dick. As Uber dickdom will help me achieve my goals.

I don’t owe the younger generations anything, they’ll be doing the same, I know of many jnr marketing professionals who do the same as me, just lots of the same type of role instead of a varied range of posts.

I don’t want to work until I’m old, I want to do as much as I can now, and be able to provide for myself and my family long term without having to worry too much about what I do job wise. I’ve never been a career woman, it’s just a means to an end for me personally. The dream is to get a rental property (or two - been watching too much homes under the hammer!) and then see where life takes me, might open up a florist - who knows!

Whats EUANZ ?

It stands for Europe, australia and New Zealand.

It’s how most FMCG and many fintech companies split regions out as they’re similar in terms of buying habits and market maturity.

Ah ok - I'm more familiar with EMEA, ROW etc

Why not? It saves money. Quite a bit if you include pensions etc.

I took on a role during covid 19, ‘overtime pie’ I called it. Predominantly identifying individuals like you. Using just your NINO and data sets.

It wouldn’t matter what your work was like or whether you appear ‘available’ on teams, and I didn’t need a reason other than your on the pay roll.

You lie to the companies you work for, steal money from businesses and jobs from other people.

Given you are so sought after, how the heck don’t you have one well paid job rather than this shit show.

Sounds like a plan. Retired at 40 passive income, a florist. 😊

Ok.

You must understand how venal and horrible that is?

I get that 'you just don't care'.

But, c'mon. Are you really that sharp, that pokey, that you just don't care?

I think you do. Hence your protestations to the other.

I see your fight. You rage against the machine in the way that you can. It's ok to kick out, but you've got to understand what you're kicking out against. It's just twattery otherwise.

Legal my arse. Anyway you jumped the shark with Homes Under the Hammer. Nice try.

I do have one well paid job, I also have two more on top.

I don’t think £120,000 a year plus 15% bonus (with 5x multiplyer this year) is considered a low wage

You really are a sad, sad individual. Maybe move on if this thread isn’t for you, it’s clearly not since you keep failing to keep up

It's a great wage - certainly a lot more than I get paid in my one and only job - but I do know a couple of people with very senior corporate roles on 500k plus. I don't doubt that you're good at what you do, so would you not be better just having the one higher paid job that you could focus on risk free? You wouldn't have all the hassle then with tax codes, potentially getting found out or being investigated, and having to live this double/triple life?

Hi OP
I believe you! I could easily do two full time roles, especially if the second was more junior. I have been in my current role for 10 years and since Covid it's 100% WFH with the odd office day a couple of times a year.

I have so much more time than before and I've become more efficient anyway so I have a lot of spare time. I've been taking on additional work from colleagues who are off sick because I hate not having enough to do. Most days I could just wrap it up in half a day, if I wasn't taking on extra. So although I struggle to see how I could so 3 roles, I can see how I could manage 2 without too much sweat. I suppose it very much depends on the sector and the type of work though.

I don't know how to get over the references issue though? I don't think I could find another job that accepted no references. How did you manage that?

The amount of stuff people claim to do while doing their "ft" wfh is quite mind-boggling. Even accepting that a lot of people aren't actively engaged in work every minute of their 8 hr shift/day, I'm dubious - even with people claiming to be super-efficient - that it's classified as a ft job if you can do it all in 2 hrs or simultaneously look after a toddler! Why would you be paid a weeks salary for a days work?

Even when people say their boss/company doesn't mind as long as the work gets done....but who are these people who give someone a task or project and doesn't care (or has no idea) if it takes 2 hrs or 35 hrs but pays them for 40hrs anyway?

Not all jobs have companies paying half a million for.

Just like how consultant paramedics are in a skills shortage but it doesn’t mean they’re paid £500,000 a year within the NHS.

comments like this baffle me, I’ve never worked anywhere where bosses, managers etc. care about how many hours worked. It’s always been based on deliverables.

I actually only know a handful of people who WFH and actually do a full day, two of which own their own businesses so are very busy

Yeah, I get that, and no way could I ever earn that myself. But in your case, you seem highly valued where you are, and you're being regularly approached by head hunters, so wouldn't it just be easier to jump ship for more money? Or would the next level up be too full on?

I'm not judging you by the way. I can see how you're able to do it, but I really couldn't handle the stress of being found out myself. Thinking about it, I could probably take on another smaller job myself and manage it simultaneously whilst working from home, but I'd be too worried about the shit show that would follow if and when it all came out that I'd been lying. But then I guess lots of people toss it off WFH, but just spend the time doing other none paid stuff, rather than get paid for tossing it off. I guess at least you're still available during your working hours rather than down at the gym...

I work from home full time and doing this would be impossible. I have a set of projects to do - but I can’t claim that it takes ten hours when it only takes one hour. We need to log the amount of time spent on a project, and there is a set amount of time allowed for each project. It’s pushed to the limit as it is, and very hard to beat the set project time. We have to account for every minute of the day in a digital log.

I think if I were to do this myself I'd probably do it slightly differently. I'd set myself up as a limited company and have jobs 2 and 3 as clients, knowing full well that they are not the primary role, and get permission from job 1 to do this. Seems like less risk and jobs 2 and 3 would be paying for deliverables rather than hours worked, so less to go wrong and on the face of it, would look more legit.

I’d probably say from looking at what’s available in the market that’s viable for me the max I could probably get is around the £230-250k mark. But most of those roles are for scale ups where it would be a lot of work.

For me in this moment in time this balance works well. I get to spend a lot of time with DD, make a good amount of money and have ticked off half my to do list by 40 - just a little bit more to go.

My role is a bit of a bell curve when it comes to career moves, lower down in the ranks generalism is favoured, then mid to high level management specialism is favoured (where I am now) then as you get to the very top generalism is again favoured, I enjoy my specialism too much to go too broad which would be what’s required to go for the CMO type roles out there.

Unfortunately many mid sized businesses are quite iffy about using consultants, it’s why most look to hire direct and have them in house.

I worked freelance years ago but it was hard when companies took the Micky regarding payment terms, paying late, not paying at all. And I just can’t really deal with the stress of that at the moment with so much else on personally.

DH is more keen than I am for me to go down this route, but I’m a bit cautious at least until DD is in school