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

What is your approach if there is an urgent crisis in one of the businesses, the kind of thing that might need to be sorted out by the end of the business day or asap? Do you stop working for the other businesses for the duration? Have you ever had two or more conflicting crises and had to juggle both?

I'm curious as to why you feel that you aren't committing fraud, where under your terms of employment you are required not to work for anyone else? Or, are you accepting that you are fraudulent, but it doesn't bother you?

As an aside, you really aren't "overworking", it is very definitely "under working" or being very generous you could call it "compressed working".

Luckily I don’t work in a niche area. I work across industries, there is little to no crossover with the people who tend to hire for my role (thank god)

You haven’t explained the “I can still get references” bit and why that is relevant?

DS works for a massive company and works extremely hard. He’s finding the more he does, the more his reputation grows and the more people want him to do. He looks at colleagues who are effectively useless and wonders why he bothers. I wonder how many of them are overworking?

DS has assessed his work life balance and options and left for something better paid where he’s in charge of himself.

This has happened once in my main role (when we were notified the Queen was dead and the impact that made) so I just didn’t do anything for my other roles.

I always ensure all of my ‘secondary’ roles are more jnr so a crisis is unlikely

Had no idea this was a thing! I'm semi-senior in a marketing role (head of dept) and there's no way I'd be able to juggle 1 more role let alone 2. Also a mum and compress my hours so I probably work 32/33 per week give or take. My role is probably more hands on than yours but even so, I'm surprised you're not in contact with your colleagues more? Most of my day is spent communicating in some way. I'm quite fascinated and maybe a tad sceptical as to whether it's true or not, but if it is, well played I suppose!

I was replying to another post, hence it’s relevant in context.

Reputation isn’t a big issue for my role, I’ve never been hired off someone else’s view of me yet and don’t imagine that will happen in future either.

You said you work in an area with a skills shortage though. You can easily transfer those skills from sector to sector. So surely it’s likely that recruiters will be looking at the same pool of people with those skills, across all sectors? You can’t be the only one who has thought of bringing the same skills to different sectors?

What’s this job you can earn £120k in by working a handful of hours a week?

Do you not have full time and attention clauses in any of your contracts? This is pretty standard.

Oh I’m in contact but it doesn’t take more than a few mins to reply to a message or email.

Drop a happy Friday GIF in the dept teams group etc. and people seem to be sorted.

I am lucky though that my team and wider dept is very good at what they do. I think having someone who was shit or a major HR issue would cause me a bit of bother!

Attention clauses? Never seen or had one

I have 3 jobs (not full time) and I needed to declare my additional employment with each of the 3.

I can absolutely understand how OP can do this. If my job was WFH I am sure I could take on another full time role, as there is the capacity and in the industry I’m in I’m thought of as hardworking, efficient and very productive, which I am, but others seem to be amazed about what I achieve. I’m gob smacked at how low expectations are in some sectors - generally amongst the younger generation (I’m 59).
Good on you OP - you are making it work. The companies are getting a good deal and you are getting rewarded for that.
If a significant number of our elected officials are doing second and third jobs, which really is questionable, why shouldn’t OP.

I work in a role that’s a skills shortage. But every business on this Earth that utilises digital marketing will need the role or someone doing it. So I am not concerned about reputation. As I have any industry on the planet to choose from near enough

I also don’t use recruiters, I’m typically head hunted directly

What she is doing is a breach of her contract. If they found out, she would be fired. It’s the risk you take. So far, the financial benefit is making it worth it.

Definitely, I’m always amazed when I see my yearly objectives for the sub roles and they’re so low. I could probably do them in less time than I do now but emails and feigning an interest in coworkers lives takes a little bit of time!

A full-time job is 35+ hours per week, x 5 jobs = 175 hours. There are only 168 hours in a week.

😂

Just don't believe this. There is no way in my job I wouldn't be pulled into things at short notice such as meetings or having to produce written work etc. Even the most efficient of people at my work, you would notice if they only did an hour or two a day. Either this is exaggerated, totally made up or the OP had no idea what their colleagues actually think of them. Will report this thread.

Bloody hell!!! No I obviously didn’t read that properly.

You do know there are roles out there that aren’t your job?

not everyone would be able to do this of course. But many can

you can just report, you don’t need to announce it

Always handy to read the updates

OP is also high level, but doesnt understand that being paid for the same hours in the day by different companies / only working 2 hours when paid for 7 is fraud and theft

So....

Boris is that you?

So… hopefully someone will connect the dots and get her out of their workplace. It’s people that abuse the WFH ethos that’s forcing everyone back into the office. Companies are getting wise to it.

I meant people recruiting from within companies , not recruitment consultants. You’re breathtakingly arrogant, I’m surprised anyone wants to work with you after meeting you. Must be a hell of a sought after skill you offer.