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Comment by habeebtc | Hacker News Reader

I have been arguing with people on Blind about this. Not actually fraud!

However, you are likely in violation of employment contract. Where I currently work, and my previous job, you could actually find a way through the official channels by just not being totally accurate about the other job(s).

If challenged it comes down to the details. Moonlighting is a perfectly normal activity for driven people (I did tech blogging for a previous employer once while employed by someone else, so I have navigated this system at one company), and by structuring your disclosures very strategically you could likely avoid any legal impacts.

All that said, working multiple jobs like that will definitely get you fired if you are found out. Even in a state with strong worker protections.

And again, all that said: Don't do this.

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Yep, I've asked before and consulted a few lawyers. Not actually fraud. Kind of a grey area unless I'm explicitly stealing trade secrets or IP.

As for getting fired, I've never been fired but I've also never been caught. Getting kind of good at it, doing this for the past 5+ years. I would assume the nice thing about getting fired in this situation is having multiple incomes to fall back on. I've never had trouble finding new jobs.

Then once you've finished juggling 4 jobs you have lucrative guru royalties for years if you write a book about it...

Maybe call it the "144 Hour Work-week"

https://theworknumber.com/ would be an easy way to find an employee who is making a second full-time salary.

None of my employers have sold my info like that... yet. Also, it's not illegal to have another form of income, even a W2 income.

True it may not be a crime, but every company I've worked for (mostly "big tech") has a clause in my contract saying that I can't work another full-time job. If I were, and they found out, I'd probably get fired.

> True it may not be a crime, but every company I've worked for (mostly "big tech") has a clause in my contract saying that I can't work another full-time job. If I were, and they found out, I'd probably get fired.

I don't doubt that some contracts state you can't work another job, but I would consider rereading some of your contracts. Especially in work friendly states, it's hard to enforce those types of clauses and companies are really good at wording things like it's a restriction when it's really a legal suggestion.

> and they found out

How exactly would an employer easily find out? I also worked multiple jobs at FAANG level big tech, you would have to explicitly say something to get found out. In fact, the big tech jobs I've had were genuinely the most administratively bloated and least likely to find out.

“Fire me. I have 3 other jobs.”

Bingo. I think people have a hard time understanding this. I always get asked, "What happens if you get fired?", I have 4 jobs... I certainly don't want to lose a job, but it's not a big deal to me.

Also, finding a new job has never been that difficult, especially in this market.

I don't know, "act like I'm "working" for the rest of that time" sure sounds like there's intentional deception for financial gain.

That's literally what the article is describing, and most people wouldn't consider that fraud, merely incompetence or poor corporate incentives. I'm just leaning into the expectations and ironically doing it better?

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