I recently read a fascinating article on what’s known as “overemployed” workers – folks secretly holding down two (or more) full-time jobs. I think a better term for this would be “extreme moonlighting” – or maybe “work bigamy.”
In any event, if this is going on at your workplace, it’s completely your fault. Let me explain:
- If you are supervising an employee so poorly that you think they’re crushing it, but they’re actually working on your company’s tasks just a few hours a week, that’s on you.
- If an employee is struggling, for whatever reason, and you haven’t worked with them to rectify the situation, that’s on you.
- If you don’t have a policy explicitly barring employees from taking on one or more additional full-time jobs, that’s on you.
- If you do have such a policy but aren’t monitoring or enforcing it, that’s on you.
It’s a safe bet that these workers are remote, or hybrid at best, but this isn’t actually a work-from-home issue. It’s a management issue.
Employees who don’t have enough to fill their allotted full-time hours should of course be raising their hands and saying so, but this doesn’t always happen (especially if an employee is getting terrific reviews, keeping everyone happy, and already being credited for going above and beyond the call of duty).
If someone is actually pulling this off so successfully that you have no clue, they are either vastly underutilized or extremely talented (perhaps both). Either way, the solution is better, more attentive supervision.
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