Posted on 10/16/2022 10:32:40 AM PDT by EBH
-PJ
I take it, then, that your contract work is in a separate industry than your full-time work? You are not working for competing companies, using trade secrets from one company on the job of another company, working for multiple companies that compete for the services or supplies from the third-party company, etc.?
-PJ
Correct. One is in Health, the other in Property.
Sure. That happens, we have all seen it. And it also happens that some corporations take care of their employees, even in the absence of law requiring them to do so.
But that is not germaine here. The issue is whether it is lying or cheating to take actions on your own.
You cannot control the actions of others. You can only control your own.
If someone’s values and principles allow you to do that, well...pretty much anything is fair game in their own sphere.
Once someone takes that step, nearly anything can be rationalized.
-PJ
“Consider a slightly different scenario. Both companies expect a 40 hr work week. If both get 40 hours, is that theft?
__________
Not if the hours are specified to meet the company’s customers’ needs. Such as 8 to 5 with appropriate break and lunch times. You can’t work 3 to 11:00 p.m. if the company’s customers usually need your services at 10:00 in the morning.
It is for now.
We had outside reps who started out as 1099’s, but they would eventually become employees with a base salary plus commissions. Problem was they didn’t always lose their “independent rep” mindset.
We had one guy who we discovered was not only selling our stuff (imprinted and embroidered sportswear), but also doing real estate, phone systems, and office supplies at the same time. The phone system and office supply companies were also paying him salary plus commission. In the early-1990’s he was earning north of $75K in total salary, plus over $100K in commissions.
We discovered something was hinky when we gave him a cell phone. He mistakenly answered with the name of the office supply company and tried to pass it off as “oops, that was my previous employer.” I checked his employment app and saw that his previous job had been with a construction company, so...
We confronted him. He fessed up to the office supply company. Said he didn’t think it was a big deal since it wasn’t a conflict of interest. We thought otherwise and put him back on straight commission. He quit within the month.
In a “small world” coincidence, we hired a receptionist/data entry woman a few months later who we eventually found out had been engaged to this sales rep! She was no longer with him and totally spilled the beans. He was constantly juggling appointments and meetings and had a hard time keeping his excuses/lies straight. Two of his employers had issued him cell phones so along with his personal one he had to carry three, plus a pager from his third employer. Remembering which one was the right one to bring in on an appointment was tricky.
The house of cards totally fell apart not long after he left us. One of his phone system clients was a restaurant and he took a job in management with them.
All that to say it has to be really stressful to try to deceive multiple employers. You’re going to get caught, eventually.
People thought they could ditch Judeo-Christian morality and still get the benefits from it. They assume that the benefits of it were the natural state of man and that the religion had nothing to do with it.
The great tragedy is that even though we are on the express elevator to hell, they just don't get it. They keep doubling down on godlessness and reaping the result.
Michael Unwin wrote "Sex and Culture" in the 1930s, research that found that cultures that abandoned sexual morality were descended into a completely dysfunctional state within three generations. People degenerate into a state of superstition, giving up on rational thought and the ability to think in abstract terms, and caring only about meeting their daily needs and wants. There are no aspirational goals, no thought of sacrifice or consideration for doing what is right in spite of the cost.
This is why almost every aspect of our culture is so terrible. The only thing that has kept us from collapsing already is the incredible wealth amassed by previous generations, but that is being squandered at a furious rate and accelerating.
No, if they don't tell the employer, it's probably because their employer views 24 hours of their day as company bought and paid for even though they only pay for 8hrs/day or 40hrs/wk. (note that I'm speaking more of side hustles than multiple jobs each with expected hours of availability). When I started doing my own thing on the side 30 years ago, I didn't hide it from my employer per se, but nor did I bother to inform them of it because it was simply none of their business just like where I chose to go for dinner on my own time.
Because I doubt you would do anything unethical, unsavory, or engage in any thievery, I am sure in your employment contract they didn’t specify your specific hours during the work week to be available, so I am sure you weren’t being unscrupulous.
Really, no employer cares if you work two, three, or more jobs outside your working hours if they specify what those hours are, right? What do they care if you are a waiter at a restaurant at night, a backhoe operator on Saturdays, and a Hardware store clerk on Sunday?
As long as you are fully 100% available during the hours they specify in your employment contract, you are covered.
Right?
I don’t recall that there was a written contract, the hours were just assumed on both sides. Even if it had been there wouldn’t have been a issue for me since I wasn’t doing side jobs during normal working hours. Any contention would have originated from them assuming without previous written agreement that they hand an inherent right to control, influence, or even know what I did outside of business hours.
I wasn’t competing with them nor using equipment or information belonging to them for my business. When they found out, they just didn’t like it because it put me less at their mercy, not because I violated any agreements nor used anything belonging to them.
If there is no agreement, there is no problem.
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