Working Two Jobs

 So you are thinking of working two jobs. I got thoughts about that.

Preliminaries. I'm not your dad. If you are doing something that you feel bad about, go yell at someone else.

If you know who I work for, I'm not their representative and my opinions are not theirs. You'll have to go ask HR about policy questions.

What is a framework for thinking about working for two jobs?

I'm talking about selling the same block of 40 hours twice, two salaried W2 jobs, often without coordination or in secret from the other employer. Working a full time job and a weekend job at the gas station is not on topic right now. I'm also not talking about 1099 freelancing, where you work for as many clients as you like and all clients know that you take on multiple clients.

A lot depends on the nature of the job. I'm going to use some metaphors because summarizing knowledge work in a single word is harder than asking a reader to understand ditch digging, truck driving are metaphors for knowledge work that is measurable.

Are you a ditch digger? Your output is 100% measurable. Once you you have dug your ditch, your client doesn't want just more and more ditches dug around their house. They don't care what you do with your spare time. You might for some reason be a salaried W2 employee with free time should you dig your ditches fast.

Are you a truck driver? Your output is 100% measurable and it is essentially an exact correlation to time. The more hours you drive the more benefit your employer gets. The only way to sell your time twice is to not drive for one employer and lie that you've driven 40 hours for each.

Are you a fireman? You are often idle, but when you are needed, it will be a catastrophy is you are not available.

Are you working a bullshit job? You do nothing of value, but the company doesn't know that. Like the adverting saying "half my advertising bill is waste, but I don't know which half" When you have a bullshit job you are letting the company know you are not providing anything of value and they should have fired you long ago. Keeping you on payroll was causing the company harm before and after you took a second job. Once you take a second job, you've also let the company know they should fire you even if you quit the other job because you now have created evidence that you weren't doing anything.

Are you in an industry where the time cards are regulated because of past histories of fraud, waste and abuse leading to rules about time cards? I'm talking about government work. Laws can't be written to cover every case, so they are often written with some simplifying assumptions, like that work means working for one employer for 40 hours and that is the only possible model.