Business 128(Wed, Thu, Sun) – Can You—And Would You—Secretly Keep Two Jobs? 


  • 投稿カテゴリー:Business
—- * * FOR NEW STUDENTS ** ————————————— ————
  1. What industry do you work in and what is your role?
  2. What are your responses in your role / position?
  3. Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
  4. How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
  5. What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
  6. How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
  7. What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?
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General discussion about your workweek:
  1. Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
  2. Anything of interest happening?
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Article
1. Wall Street Journal contributor Rachel Feintzeig recently wrote about people having “secret lives” holding two jobs, where neither employer knows about the other. She carried out interviews with six anonymous workers secretly working two full-time jobs, noting that the pandemic “has given us new opportunities to shirk and fib.”
2. She found a software engineer who claimed he was only logging in three to 10 hours of productive work in his first job, and now making “incredible money” from two jobs. All he claimed to be lost were unnecessary meetings in the first job. Another tech worker took advantage of his company’s generous Paid Time Off policy to start another gig. Along the way, he has learned to politely say “Sorry, not enough bandwidth” to colleagues requesting meeting time.

3. A woman who started working two jobs after Covid-19 arrived received an email from one of them outlining a return-to-the-office plan. She gave in her notice, landed a different second job, and hired a personal assistant to help her keep track. A bank employee sent home to work seized the moment to take on three other employers, then left the bank for full-time work with one of those employers – along with permission to take on additional gigs.

Do you think employees should be fully obligated to one employer? Why?

4. Feintzeig also provided a guide on “How to Live a Double (Work) Life,” (not included in the online edition of the article) with pointers including
a) find one job with an older company not up to speed in managing remote workers,
b) avoid startups (they ask too much)
c) look visible (like leaving your MS Teams light on green)
d) master which meetings to take,
e) stay under the radar (e.g. by tapping LinkedIn’s privacy settings) and
f) resist overwork (by dropping overly demanding jobs and taking time for yourself).
5. What to make of this secret two-jobs phenomenon, and the advice on how to live with it? Consider the guide as a thought experiment – as Feintzeig may have meant it. Ask yourself:Is secretly taking on more than one job an acceptable long-term arrangement?
 

In addition to financial reasons why might an employee take on secondary employment?

6. Absolutely not! It goes against to core idea of career ownership, which is to stand up for what you want to do and communicate that to your employers. It also goes against an ideal of “talent liberation” that seeks to shake off restrictive employer assumptions about what you ought to be doing with your career. This does not mean to deny you discretion about what you share with any single employer about other work arrangements. Confidentiality agreements can be helpful to both parties here.
7. Can having two secret jobs at one time provide a temporary solution?

Quite possibly, yes. You may be in a difficult financial situation through no fault of your own, or be stuck with family medical bills, or rental fees, where the additional income is critical for staying afloat. In this situation, be clear in your own mind what you are offering each employer, and what to say if challenged. Also, work toward what at least one of Feintzeig’s examples did. That is, have one main job and let them know you will deliver value while at the same time having other gigs.

・How important is employee loyalty in your workplace?

・What are some  perceived differences between employees in Western countries and Japan when it comes job loyalty?

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