How Some Americans Stealthily Work Multiple Full-Time Jobs from Home, Earn Over $300,000 – Business Insider

Getty Images

Secretly working multiple full-time jobs from home has helped some Americans improve their finances.

In Germany the legal situation is more difficult. But even in the USA it is not easy to juggle multiple jobs and get by.

Business Insider asked three current and former job jugglers how to avoid suspicion.

This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by an editor.

Some Americans secretly work multiple full-time jobs from home to supplement their income. Despite having twice as many meetings, tasks and employees, many manage to remain undetected.

Avoiding detection can come with enormous rewards. In the last few months, Business Insider spoke with three people who earned over $300,000 (€271,000) working two or three remote jobs at the same time. They used the extra money to pay off their mortgages, save for their children’s college educations, pay medical bills and plan for an earlier retirement.

However, this is not easy, which is one reason why “overemployed” individuals make up a very small proportion of the US workforce. Juggling the jobs also comes with some risks. While holding multiple jobs at the same time is not a violation of federal or state law in the United States, it can violate some employment contracts and result in dismissal if an employer finds out.

Read too

“Overemployment” phenomenon: This 23-year-old has two full-time jobs — and gave a third to his unemployed sister

We asked three Americans who were overemployed last year how they did it. They spoke anonymously for fear of professional repercussions, but Business Insider has verified their identities and income.

Be good, not great, at all your jobs

Justin, an IT engineer in his 50s, secretly earned over $300,000 last year from three full-time IT engineer jobs.

The additional income not only gave him an unusual level of job security, but also helped him pay off debt, increase his retirement savings, and realize his dream of retiring at 65.

Over the past two years, Justin says he’s studied all the excuses for missing meetings, not turning on his computer camera, and not being available for extra tasks. Thousands of members of the overemployed community on Discord and Reddit are helping workers like John avoid detection.

Justin’s biggest piece of advice for job jugglers is: Be good, not great, at all your jobs. It’s important to be good at your job so bosses don’t become suspicious, he said. For some workers, this could mean having to focus on just two jobs instead of three.

“Always be available, respond promptly and do good work,” he said. “Meet deadlines, and if you can’t, let us know in advance.”

However, it’s important not to be “great” at your job to avoid the additional responsibility that a promotion might bring, Justin said. He added that this also results in his bosses expecting less from him and not overwhelming him with work.

Read too

A worker works three jobs to make $300,000 a year and retire early – with these strategies he can get away with it

Don’t double-book meetings and confide in a good friend

Joseph, a network engineer in his late 40s, secretly earned $344,000 (€311,000) from three remote jobs last year. He said the extra income allowed him to pay off the remaining $129,000 on his mortgage. He hopes that one day he will be able to send his children to college debt-free.

Although Joseph was recently laid off from two of his jobs and is not currently overemployed, he said his job juggling was never exposed.

To avoid arousing suspicion, Joseph said managing his work calendars was crucial. For example, in the digital work calendar for his first job, he added all the appointments or commitments he had for the other two jobs and marked them as “private” so no one could see the descriptions. In this way he was able to avoid double occupancy and was not disturbed during these times.

“If you keep your Outlook calendar up to date, you should never have a conflict,” he said.

In addition, at each of his first two jobs, Joseph had a good friend to whom he told about his overemployment. “I really just needed someone to understand that I miss a session here and there,” he said.

Read too

This 48-year-old secretly worked three full-time jobs at the same time and earned $344,000 – because he wanted job security

If you’re productive at work, your bosses might look the other way

John, a young IT professional from California, is on track to make over $300,000 (€271,000) this year from two remote jobs. He says he has saved over $150,000 (136,000 euros) since becoming overemployed two years ago and hopes to one day use those funds to buy a house.

For John, the best way to avoid suspicion is to be very productive in both jobs, which he believes comes from a combination of luck, practice and skill.

For example, his teams’ daily meetings fortunately do not overlap. But he has been practicing working on one task while in a meeting for the other task. John is usually able to complete tasks ahead of schedule, which is one of the reasons he only works about 40 hours a week despite working two jobs.

Plus, the skills he learned in one job sometimes helped him become more productive in his other job, he said.

Although he tries his best not to arouse suspicion, John believes that one of his bosses might know that he is leading a double life. But as long as he remains productive, he’s confident this suspicion won’t become a problem. “Either he doesn’t mention it or he just doesn’t care as long as I do my job,” John said of his boss.

Read too

The 48-year-old secretly works from home in three jobs at the same time – and earns $344,000 a year

This article has been translated from English. You can find the original here.

2024-01-01 12:42:15
#Secretly #working #multiple #fulltime #jobs #home #employees #explain #managed #avoid #exposed