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Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

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Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#11

Post by pc86 »

ShivShankaran wrote: post #7
oxff wrote: post #2

I wonder how the legalities of working more than 1 (remote) job are. You'd think you'd run into some conflicting clauses in your employment contracts.

Lots of employees do it. Their 9-5 jobs suffers but pay over there is guaranteed. I know more than few startup employees who work with other startups on hourly contract basis. Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

I take a lot of issue with you framing this as "cheating." How is it cheating? How do you know the 9-5 necessarily suffers?

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#13

Post by pc86 »

akhmatova wrote: post #8

If you're two-timing on clients / employers (that is, plainly working two FT jobs at once) -- you can't expect that to end well. If you're working > 50 hours a week (or whatever your personal limit is) for more than 1-2 months -- that won't end well for your health or business relationships, either. That's the score, basically.

You're presenting opinions as if they are absolute facts above questioning. If you have a full-time job and you only need to do ~20 hours a week of work to complete all your deliverables, you could absolutely get another full-time job and have it go fine.

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#14

Post by skeeter2020 »

akhmatova wrote: post #8

If you're two-timing on clients / employers (that is, plainly working two FT jobs at once) -- you can't expect that to end well. If you're working > 50 hours a week (or whatever your personal limit is) for more than 1-2 months -- that won't end well for your health or business relationships, either. That's the score, basically.

lots of people work far more than 50 hrs/week on a regular basis, this is not a huge deal if that's your jam. If you're working multiple salaried positions, or double-billing your time, that's a different story.

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#15

Post by MilStdJunkie »

If you do this with direct charge government work, you're within hailing range of felony territory. Granted, you probably won't get caught, but if you do, it's going to be a bridge burner for you in this industry basically forever.

Is that entirely a bad thing, though, considering this industry? Discussion ongoing.

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#16

Post by jraph »

ShivShankaran wrote: post #7
oxff wrote: post #2

I wonder how the legalities of working more than 1 (remote) job are. You'd think you'd run into some conflicting clauses in your employment contracts.

Lots of employees do it. Their 9-5 jobs suffers but pay over there is guaranteed. I know more than few startup employees who work with other startups on hourly contract basis. Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

> Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

Are they that many people doing this?

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#17

Post by akhmatova »

pc86 wrote: post #13
akhmatova wrote: post #8

If you're two-timing on clients / employers (that is, plainly working two FT jobs at once) -- you can't expect that to end well. If you're working > 50 hours a week (or whatever your personal limit is) for more than 1-2 months -- that won't end well for your health or business relationships, either. That's the score, basically.

You're presenting opinions as if they are absolute facts above questioning. If you have a full-time job and you only need to do ~20 hours a week of work to complete all your deliverables, you could absolutely get another full-time job and have it go fine.

No, it won't "go fine". You'll be lying to both of your employers. That's not "fine" and it can't possibly end well for anyone.

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#18

Post by skeeter2020 »

pc86 wrote: post #11
ShivShankaran wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of employees do it. Their 9-5 jobs suffers but pay over there is guaranteed. I know more than few startup employees who work with other startups on hourly contract basis. Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

I take a lot of issue with you framing this as "cheating." How is it cheating? How do you know the 9-5 necessarily suffers?

because by definition you're being paid for your time. I've never seen a non-contract tech position scoped as "here's an exhaustive set of responsibilities; you'll be paid 40 hrs/week to accomplish them but if you finish early the time is yours". According to your profile you're a new EM; can you honestly say there's a point in your day when the job is done-done and you can jump over to your other job?

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#19

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

ShivShankaran wrote: post #7
oxff wrote: post #2

I wonder how the legalities of working more than 1 (remote) job are. You'd think you'd run into some conflicting clauses in your employment contracts.

Lots of employees do it. Their 9-5 jobs suffers but pay over there is guaranteed. I know more than few startup employees who work with other startups on hourly contract basis. Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

> Their 9-5 jobs suffers

If they do it this way, they are doing it wrong.

At my current job I can squeeze all my daily tasks in maybe one hour (mind you, this is after 10 years of doing a very similar set of things). It becomes longer when a significant change comes or an emergency happens but after a few weeks it's all the same. I study new things and develop my competences during the spare hours but I can imagine I could earn money as well. The pay is good so I don't have motivation to take an extra job but I can totally understand people who are more ambitious or earn less.

Re: Ask HN: Who here is juggling two or more remote jobs? How is it working out?

#20

Post by Enginerrrd »

pc86 wrote: post #11
ShivShankaran wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of employees do it. Their 9-5 jobs suffers but pay over there is guaranteed. I know more than few startup employees who work with other startups on hourly contract basis. Part of the reason for managers to start pushing for return to office since its harder to cheat this way from office.

I take a lot of issue with you framing this as "cheating." How is it cheating? How do you know the 9-5 necessarily suffers?

I'm old enough and I have done this exact thing enough to know that of course it suffers. A lot more than you want to admit too.

Even if you don't ever mix the 9-5 time with the freelance time, (Which FYI is nearly impossible in practice.) you just aren't going to be at your best when you show up the next day to work your 9-5 8-hour day after having worked a full day and moonlighted for another 4-6 hours afterward the day before. You're lying to yourself if that's what you think. And if you're working weekends, you're going to get burned out in a way that only punishes your 9-5 employer for not giving you a higher workload. People get fired all the time when their weekend or after work binge drinking interferes with their work the next day, why should spending your discretionary time burning yourself out be any different?

Human beings can only do one thing in any moment. Worse, this truth has some applicability over longer time scales as well.

Human beings require substantial periods of recovery in order to perform optimally. Often, what you do during that recovery has dramatic implications on how well you're going to do when you get back at it. (Ever solve a difficult programming problem only after taking a break? You won't get those same eureka moments if on your breaks your loading entirely new problems into your brain all the time.)

You do the math.

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