Friend told me today…

[FairieCastel]

Her husband is working 2 full time jobs remotely. They live in the UK, so he works one in the day and then one which is US timezone. But there is crossover. Is it me or does this seem, I don’t know, fraudulent ?

I respect the hustle. His performance at each job is between him and the respective employer.

@BezMills completely respect the hustle. They appear to live a lovely life off the back of it.

I think you're trying to sound concerned now but in actual fact it triggers you that he does this because you mentioned the word unethical then you revert to 'he must really need the weekends'. Are you concerned for him? are you annoyed, or were you just curious as you first said? You know even if he works full time for both but he's self employed rather then employed then there would probably be no 'ethical' issues. I think your true issue is you feel they are making lots of money by doing this and that's what annoys you.

@MellowCritic you are jumping to conclusions and know nothing about my own finances…

Unethical yes, if it was my employee I wouldn’t be happy about it.

Curious, yes as I can’t imagine logistically how he manages it.

And I also think he must need the weekends, as doing that, regardless of opinions on it is going to make him very tired…

You think I'm jumping to conclusions?? Me ?? That's so funny considering what your thread is about 🤣🤣🤣🤣

When does he sleep? I think I would be more concerned about his health. Surely, that can’t be a long term plan because of burnout?

I’d be concerned about their health and wellbeing to be honest. Working 2 full time jobs is 74 hours a week which is excessive and bloody exhausting.

I have to gain permission to get a second job and I am pretty sure I can’t work in the same field. So for example if I was working for Bank A - I couldn’t work for Bank B but I could work at WH Smith’s at the weekend..

You don’t sound like you like this friend much…

Surely your concern should be for their wellbeing and concern they are struggling financially?

On what basis? Most employers allow a second job, you declare it. I’m not sure you under sense the meaning of either of the words you’ve used.

If they crossover, there must be periods when they are not fully available to their respective employers and in breach of contract.

Presumably because of the crossover period.

If these are 2 jobs that can be fully done to a good standard within say 40 hours a week each, and the person is doing that then as long as it's not in breach of either contract I can't see the problem. I used to work 80 hours a week - if I could have worked the same hours and been paid double that would have been great!
They should be careful if it is in breach of contract though, as someone where I used to work did this and one of their employers tried to recoup wages and they ended up losing both jobs.

I could easily do another job along side my current job. My current role is very easy and probably takes about one whole day to complete all of my tasks, if that.

Maybe I should I think about adding another job 😆

I work in a very large multinational company and manage an international team. Recently, it came to my boss's attention that one of my team had another professional level job like the one she had in my team for a company that is in the same industry but not competitive with ours. She claimed that it was only out of hours and on weekends. Unfortunately, it was escalated all the way to our ethics board, who determined that she had violated our code of conduct, which clearly states you must seek approval before obtaining secondary employment. Within a day and a half of me learning of it, I had to terminate her for cause, and as she was based in the US, this meant that she was not entitled to any unemployment benefits.

I did feel really sorry for her, but it was an entirely avoidable outcome. I would certainly not advise anyone to put themselves in this position - corporate will not be forgiving. I hope your friend's husband can extricate himself before he suffers any consequences. :(

Appear is the key word the reality is they probably have huge credit card debts. I can't imagine anyone wanting to work this much unless they have to. I couldn't think of anything worse. Its no life if your working constantly

Unlikley to be fraudulent and most certainly none of your business

Are they going for FIRE - financial independence, retire early?

Working those kind of hours is not long term sustainable or healthy. Yes, there are industries where 12 hour working days are 'normal'/expected but burnout and mental health problems are rife. Let alone achieving it through working two separate roles like that. No thanks.

It would be interesting to know where he pays tax.

Obviously the specifics are relevant, but if he's working US hours, this sounds like a big corporation. I work for a large US corporation and I can assure you that this would be considered gross misconduct.

I’m more wondering how it works income tax wise. Surely the two companies must see that the tax bracket isn’t what it should be. Don’t they ask why??

And the companies aren’t classed as competitors’ in the same industry.

Dp used to work with someone who tried the same thing. It all unravelled eventually, both companies found out and he was immediately let go from both because there was a conflict of interests. On the other hand I know someone working two jobs and its all above board. He's fucking exhausted though!

Especially in the US it is very common to work 2 jobs.

My employer (UK professional services firm) does not prohibit this so long as not working for a competitor or interfering with my duties to them.

We have fully flexible and remote working.

No issues with doing this whatsoever - provided people are meeting their KPIs and targets.

I know someone who was doing this. When their performance naturally dropped (because working two full time jobs and meeting expectations in both is not sustainable in the long term). They were put on performance monitoring at one place, it was discovered what they were doing two jobs, one employer informed the other. They lost both jobs. There were also conflicts of interest. They also earned a reputation in the industry which will I suspect hinder prospects. They had not informed each employer so the correct boxes were not ticked on the payroll for HMRC. Anyone who has ever had a mistake with HMRC knows what a headache that is. You also need to let your employer know about other jobs so that you can opt out of the working time directive. As two full time jobs will be more than 48 hours a week.

Doing two jobs is admiral. Not telling both employers can be a real headache.

There would be an issue if he is 'working' 2 FT jobs/not working his contracted hours, irrespective of the work getting done. Most 'job' contracts are for a contracted number of hours.
The abuse/potential abuse of WFH is not this thread