Last weekend the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article, My Secret Life: Working Remotely-At Two Jobs (Rachel Feintzeig) detailing how some people work two jobs from home (same hours) naturally, pocketing two paychecks. Not everybody can do this, for sure, it seems those fine and dry engineers -coders and developers -are the best suited for it.
“Sometimes they log on to two meetings at once… There’s even a website, Overemployed, that aims to rally workers around the concept of steadily holding multiple jobs, framing as a way to wrest back control after decades of stalled wages.”
The WSJ
“He spends his days switching off among 3 laptops -work personal, and work job 2….To maintain separation and secrecy, other workers swear by color-coding browser windows or using external microphones that can be muted without alerting others on a video call. One worker manages double meetings by logging on to one via computer and other via his phone.”
WSJ
“When the worker gets called on simultaneously in both meetings – it happens -he drops one call, answers the other’s query and then pops back onto the dropped call.
Sorry, he had a network issue. What was the question again?
Even better: Evade the meeting altogether. He often tells colleagues he doesn’t think their issue requires a call, and he can help them faster on Slack.
WSJ
The Wall Street Journal verified the workers’ accounts by examining offer letters, employment contracts, concurrent pay stubs and corporate emails. Most of them say they are on track to earn a total of $200,000 to nearly $600,000 a year, including bonuses and stock. They have paid off chunks of student-loan debt, plumped their kids’ college-savings accounts and bought everything from an engagement ring to a sports car with the extra cash.
The money is incredible, the 29-year-old software engineer says.
WSJ
The article has generated 586 comments thus far. Software development, man. That’s the dream.