In today’s glorious economic utopia, not everyone can afford to pay their bills with the singular paycheck from a job—which is why some enterprising souls opt for a good ol’ side hustle. You know, the kind that could make a charming addition to any resume: “Professional Juggler of Multiple Jobs.” But here’s the twist—many companies frown upon this double-dipping, particularly if your other gig isn’t quite in the freelance or part-time realm. A manager on Reddit recently found herself in quite the conundrum, believing one of her star employees might secretly be moonlighting somewhere else while still managing to look busy.
Now, the burning question arises: if the employee is a top performer and consistently hitting those high notes, does it even matter if he’s working a second full-time gig? According to the Reddit sages, it absolutely shouldn’t, especially in an economy where one salary often covers little more than a diet of ramen and day-old bread.
To Ignore or Not To Ignore: The Manager’s Dilemma
The manager, a beacon of corporate curiosity, echoed her suspicions about the employee’s second job—after all, his calendar was looking more like a mysterious black hole than a well-organized schedule. “He shows up to meetings,” she lamented, “but his calendar is blocked for much of the day, and I know he doesn’t have that many calls.” Ah yes, the classic “I’m busy, but I’m really not” conundrum. As if hiding in plain sight wasn’t hard enough.
Recently, however, Sherlock Holmes over here stumbled upon what seemed to be the proverbial smoking gun: when her employee shared his screen, she spotted messages from outside his company—probably wedding invites or, you know, communication for a job that actually pays the bills.
“If he’s doing his job,” she pondered while holding back her managerial instincts, “should I turn a blind eye?” It’s almost like asking whether to ignore a cat peeing on the living room rug as long as it doesn’t stink up the whole house. She even considered giving him more work or reporting him to HR—because who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned workplace snitch?
The Blurred Ethics of Overemployment
This is where it gets gloriously complex. On one hand, you have the ethical dilemma—which seems to lean toward “let the man live.” Most commenters on her post would happily turn their heads the other way, suggesting that as long as he meets expectations, he should be left alone. After all, we’re living in a time when nearly 8.4 million Americans have chosen to embrace the joys of being overemployed. Because, who wouldn’t want to live their life like a caffeine-fueled hamster on a wheel?
And let’s be real: some folks take on extra jobs because their bills are evolving into sentient creatures demanding more money, while others might just want to explore hobbies that can’t quite fit into a nine-to-five. While it’s difficult to pinpoint our star employee’s exact motives, it’s safe to assume his side hustle is financially driven—just a hunch.
But wait, there’s a legal twist! According to Aaron Hotfelder, who definitely did not write a garden-variety legal article, being overemployed could open the floodgates to a realm of legal issues. Working multiple gigs doesn’t break any laws—unless, of course, your company has a contract full of pesky clauses that say otherwise. Healthy paranoia can lead to terminations or even worse—criminal charges for fraud if you’re not careful. All this just to make ends meet and keep your Netflix account active.
In the end, the manager concluded that as long as her employee continues to churn out quality work, she didn’t mind pretending she was a corporate ostrich with her head in the sand. After all, as one astute commenter put it, “Working multiple jobs has been a thing since fire was discovered. If someone picks up a second job while working remotely, are they really the thief you think they are? My neighbors have side businesses, and nobody’s judging them.”
