So a company just fired several employees for working multiple jobs during remote working.

The issue wasn’t conflict of interest as most the additional jobs were of a different nature. The key issue was that the jobs required dedicating a certain number of core hours and the employees weren’t meeting up with the agreed contracted hours.

Most of the employees were found to be doing other jobs during their core contracted hours. In one case, an employee was using their other job’s laptop during core hours. Another employee had 3 jobs, 2 they did in the day and 1 at night.

It’s obvious that what some people call side hustles aren’t done on the side. They currently compete for core hours of their main job.

Many full time roles are based on estimated hours expected to perform a job successfully. While some jobs are focussed on deliverables, it is still expected that a certain number of hours will be put in to achieve the agreed performance standards.

If an employee enters an hourly contract, then they are expected to deliver to the agreed hours, anything short could be seen as a breech of contract. Of course if the employee can deliver their tasks in a shorter time frame, the employer is less likely to notice. However, poor perfomance always raises suspicion of the employee being distracted.

Organisations need to be clear on the remote work policies, stating what is acceptable practice for remote workers, whether time of delivery is flexible or bound by core hours e.g. many remote customer service roles are not flexible, they are scheduled in shifts and staff need to be available to serve customers at specific times.

A potential employee who plans to work multiple jobs should consider disclosing to their organisation to understand the implications. They should also enquire about the organisation’s policies around multiple jobs. Another consideration is focussing on jobs with independent consultant status, seeing these are often more focussed on deliverables than time. Down side is many organisations don’t offer the full array of employee benefits with such contractor roles.

Personally, I don’t believe in side hustles especially when they involve working round the clock, however I understand that some people do it to meet urgent financial needs.

Excessive stress weakens the immune system and the money made could end up being used on health care costs.

In my opinion, what most employees need, is a main hustle that pays well. Till then, your guess is as good as mine…

Your thoughts?