Tech CEO calls overemployment trend a 'new form of theft and deception' after firing two engineers secretly working multiple full-time jobs at once

Business Insider ^ | 10/16/22 | Hannah Towey

[EBH]

A Linkedin post shared by Canopy CEO Davis Bell is sparking controversy for shedding light on the growing trend of "overemployment," or secretly working two remote jobs at once.

The post went viral on Friday after Bell divulged that Canopy, a mid-sized software company based in Utah, recently fired two engineers who were secretly working two full-time jobs simultaneously. Overemployment has soared during the pandemic, with some saying it allows them to make up to $600,000 a year during a period of record-inflation and soaring housing costs.

"To me, this isn't some fun new social trend," Bell wrote. "It's a new form of theft and deception, and not something in which an ethical, honest person would participate."

The post prompted backlash from several corners of the internet, including the Reddit community "antiwork," with some users arguing that tech CEOs like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk are lauded for working at multiple companies at once, while regular workers are punished for it. Others speculated that the engineers may have be working two jobs in order to make ends meet.

[rlmorel]

I can leave it at that, FRiend.

[rlmorel]

Here is the thing-how many of these people who do this kind of thing clear it with their employer(s)?

I will bet zero, or close to it.

And they don’t clear it, because they know it is wrong. They can rationalize it, but they know it is wrong.

What will happen is that employers will require employees to sign a specific statement that prohibits working for another employer during the agreed upon time frames. That’s all.

[Political Junkie Too]

If you're working remotely -- providing your own office, setting your own hours -- are you still an employee? Aren't you really an independent contractor?

The original complaint from independent contractors in the 1990s was that they were de facto employees, less the benefits. The IRS ruled that companies had to treat them as employees unless they provided their own tools, set their own hours, and directed their own work towards the contracted objectives. This led to the rise of contracting companies who employed the independent contractors (paying their benefits) and then sub-contracted them out to other companies as staff augmentation.

Now we seem to have the opposite going on, employees who are acting like contractors?

-PJ

[bobbo666]

Another tech twit with his head up his butt.

Look, moron. So long as you get from them what you assigned them to do it is none of your business what they do off your clock. Oh, and you only get 8 of theirs — piss off if you expect more.
If you are not getting what you assigned them to do, that is your fault. YOURS!

CrackerJack must still be handing out CEO titles along with the magic decoder rings if this TWOT can call himself one.

[aquila48]

“Overemployed” while “quiet quitting” - biting the hands that feeds them in two ways.

Maybe a recession may not be such a bad thing - could make these fraudsters appreciate what they had.

[AppyPappy]

I think we have a developer doing this. Maybe two. They are slow to get things out.

[Political Junkie Too]

What they mean is they’re providing everything agreed upon and have found ways to streamline the process and get the work done while still being able to do the same for another company. So, the argument becomes, do they OWN you for a certain number of hours a day or do they hire you to complete certain tasks?

In my day, when I completed assigned tasks earlier than planned, I went back to my leadership and asked what else I could do? I was building a career at the company, and I was expected to maximize my potential to benefit the company and myself.

I never believed that if my boss asked me to complete tasks X, Y, and Z, when I finished those tasks I could go somewhere else and do tasks A, B, and C, for them until my first company came back to me with their next tasks.

It was on me to work efficiently, work cooperatively in a team, keep leadership informed of my progress, and look for ways to improve myself, the team, and the systems I was working on. I never had the thought that I was only obligated to deliver the tasks that were assigned to me, and I could work for someone else if I had gaps in my schedule.

-PJ

[AppyPappy]

That’s actually very common now. It’s one reason we insist on cameras on for Zoom interviews. I catch people Googling technical questions or having someone send them the answer.

[Chode]

different equipment too, right?

[AppyPappy]

There is the inevitable “What are you working on?” question which is manager-speak for “Do you have room for more work?”. The problem is that I have become the first responder. “Can you write me a query that does this?” or “Can you change this report to do this?” or “Can you make this report a spreadsheet?”

So while I may have time, it quickly gets sucked up by requests. I took last Thursday and Friday off and my boss contacted me to see if I was working. That’s why I don’t like about WFH.

[Political Junkie Too]

One is under no obligation to "make it clear" to the bosses that one has "more potential." One is under no obligation to accept a so-called "promotion."

We would call someone like that a "slacker."

Sure, he may be brilliant, he may be a genius, but his own behavior suggests that he's an anti-social introvert who prefers to hide out in the graveyard shift to avoid being around other people. Tech attracts that type of person, or at least it did in my day of punch-cards in college and mainframe coding after graduating.

There is a paradigm at play here, that most people who work in professions do so with the intent to advance. That's why companies have career ladders, salary levels, pay grade ranges, annual performance evaluations and career development discussions. Your nephew sounds like someone who wants none of that. I would be surprised if he hasn't been labeled by now as a loner individual contributor.

He may not realize it yet, but he's condemning himself to a life of mediocrity, where he will be stuck in the same role with the same skills while his peers advance, learn new things, and make new connections as they become older and more mature. He will one day step out of the graveyard to find that the company has passed him by.

But you know him and I don't. But if he works graveyard and sleeps during the day, when does he get to have a social life when the world is operating on an opposite schedule?

To address the larger worker issues, companies may call it "theft" if they believe they invested time and effort to train employees, develop their team skills, their leadership skills, their industry knowledge, and perhaps the lost potential of other competing workers who didn't get a slot on a desired development assignment that went to someone who was splitting their time at other companies.

Companies hate to think that they trained another company's workforce.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

Consider a slightly different scenario. Both companies expect a 40 hr work week. If both get 40 hours, is that theft?

Let me turn your scenario around slightly.

If a worker works 80 hours per week split between two companies and then gets sick from the workload, is it theft if this employee bills both companies for the sick time?

I guess the ethics question is, did the employee put his health at risk by working an excessive schedule, thereby putting his ability to meet his work expectations at either company at risk? Does the first hiring company have the stronger complaint, citing the work for the second company as being the stressor that put the first company's deadlines at risk?

-PJ

[EBH]

Actually yes, they would cover up the cameras between employers

[perfect_rovian_storm]

That was when there was some security, loyalty, and a real possibility of actually cementing your career at the company. Now, these companies just feel free to dump on people and treat them like garbage. There is no security. It’s not uncommon for them to ‘downsize’ and fire someone just so they can dump their job in your lap with zero increase in compensation for you.

I learned a LONG time ago that all I got for finishing work early was more (probably mind-numbing) busy work and no actual appreciation for excelling.

They created this environment. Employees just adapt.

[steve86]

“a real Wally”

??

[DesertRhino]

If the guys got their work assignments done, I’d vote not guilty.

[DoodleBob]

In the 80s, it was considered a very Republican thing to be employed as a white-collar worker, especially in a corporation, or to work in or own a small business. The Dems and leftists worked in govt, not for profits, entertainment, or were blue collar and/or unionized people...or on the dole.

Of course this is a high level generalization. But I would argue, it's pretty accurate.

Fast forward to 2022. The poles have flipped on corporations and blue collar workers. You can hear the disgust dripping from some posters on FR when it comes to "corporations." Further, if I trolled DU, I bet there would be terabytes of vective aimed at anyone in a trade or on an assembly line.

To be fair, many corporations have earned the ire of normal folks, with wokeism and advertising and marketing that treats half of their possible customer base like a war criminal. And while in the 80s GE and IBM were titans and getting picketed by former hippies for acid rain etc, it's now big media which actively hates Deplorables. So, I get it.

In my opinion, this flipping-of-the-poles is why so many people on this thread are justifying workers double dipping. The evil corporations are screwing Deplorables, so if workers are screwing the company then it's all good.

Except it's not.

Regardless if you have a contract with your employer, there is a general compact that for $x a week you'll be on the clock from 8-6. If you cheat your employer out of your labor during that time frame, you're a fraud like Fauci, Pelosi, and every other loser who lives a life of lies.

In my line of work (I'm a Shepard...) you CAN work part time...BUT you need your boss' OK, AND you're not allowed to compete against your full time employer (e.g. I can't work for a competing sheparding firm or do freelance sheparding). Also, you need to demonstrate that your part time gig isn't interfering with your day job. It double-dipping is theft.

I think most corporations, in general, are net positive entities to the nation. They are part of the massive economic engine in America, a nation with 4% of the world's population that cranks out 24% of global GDP. They have awesome training programs, hire new workers, pay people really well, offer great benefits, and help customers and employees fulfill their manifest destiny. It works much better than socialism, and you can always quit and get another job elsewhere.

It used to be envious liberals who railed against folks in suits and ties or dresses. Ah, the good old days. Such is life.

[DoughtyOne]

I too recognize problematic corporations, but the across the
board slander of corporations is misguided.

It’s anti-Capitalist, and a severe hobble to the U. S.
business climate, if corporations couldn’t be formed to
support the auto industry, space exploration, or any other
major project that would be fancially out of reach if
corporations didn’t exist.

[CommieCutter]

Again I said I’m not justifying this behavior.

[dinodino]

Agreed. Return to 100% office, and conduct a RIF and remove the slackers.