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Comment by danjoredd | Hacker News Reader

>I've (literally) employed people who were working 3 jobs without any of the other employers knowing about one another. We were being scammed. This happened not just once, but with 2 people (1 full stack engineer who is a HN regular, and another was an account manager).

If that employee does all of their work for you, why does it matter if they work another job? Are they underperforming? I'm sorry, but I don't see how that is a scam. In retail, people work multiple jobs all the time. Why is it suddenly unethical the moment it turns into an office job?

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> Why is it suddenly unethical the moment it turns into an office job?

It's only unethical if you're not in the ruling class. If you're an executive, it's perfectly fine to sit on the board of multiple companies simultaneously (each one paying you $50,000+ per year).

No, it's unethical to do it without disclosure. You can have as many jobs as you want as long as they are aware of one another.

Why though? What business does one employer have knowing what else you do in your life? Do you tell them what hobbies you’re into or what tv show you watched last?

Legally speaking because it's in your contract. Ethically it's because when you agree to a full time position you are agreeing to make your time available, with reasonable allowances. Again, it's completely fine to make a different arrangement if that's clear up front.

Unless you are somehow working them in totally offset hours, or you have _literally_ zero meetings and work in a completely asynchronous environment, then you need to disclose.

But that's not true for an overwhelmingly large number of people. You aren't just being paid for output, you are also being paid for time.

Legally I have had one employer contract call out that they expect you to work for certain hours, but that was a Canadian startup; none of the American companies have had that I remember.

Ethically though, I don't feel this way at all. They're paying for my output not my time. I don't get paid overtime when I work extra nor do I get credit for working on the weekend.

I don't think I'll convince you but I guess I would say you don't owe your employer your life. They'll cut you off when it's to their benefit and it's best you do what's best for you.

If you can get the work done, it's not unethical. Sounds like they weren't getting it done though:

>(their downfall was neither of them were meeting productivity expectations, not getting their work done)

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