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Comment by specialp | Hacker News Reader

It is a LOT different to be working multiple jobs at different times of the day. This is not what this is. This is trying to get away with working 2 or more jobs at the same time and making up excuses about why you can't make an on camera meeting. Also in the case of CEOs it is known they are doing that. If someone said yeah I have another job I will be working the same hours as your job that is totally fair. But they don't say that. They say their pipes froze, doctor's appointment, etc. It is also fair that the worker can do what they would like in their time including working another job. I have also had people who honestly said they were wrapping up their consulting gig and would need some time periodically to take off and that was fine too.

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> If someone said yeah I have another job I will be working the same hours as your job that is totally fair.

Close to zero companies would accept this, even if your performance met standards and you did it in such a way you didn't miss a single meeting. That's why I said if you are open about it they will fire [or not hire] you. It's a double standard.

This is because companies are stupid and lazy when it comes to measuring performance.

There is only one used method of performance measurement: time spent. Every company who CLAIMS to be "data-driven" or "gamifies the system" are lying through their teeth. They're like every other company, they measure performance by hours spent.

I've seen many engineers easily hitting double the number of tickets closed as others. They don't work 20 hours a week. If they did, they would be fired within days.

This is why over-employment is "cheating". Employers don't actually care about your performance, they care about how much you're paying. If you're paying less to them, even if their end of the deal is sweet, they feel cheated. They, like most Americans, value perceived fairness over actual outcomes. They have no issue shooting themselves, or you, in the foot if this looks to be more fair.

I could work two different retail jobs in a day if the schedules work out. I cannot work 40 hours a week as an engineer, much less take on a second job (fortunately I can always find a few mindless meetings to make up my job). So long as I'm expected to work 40 hour weeks my company is justified in asking me not work a second job in my field as I couldn't anyway.

Now I could go out and get a retail job for after my regular job.

yeah, if you're salaried big corps expect to own you. you generally sign away all your creative rights to side projects when you take the offer, and you usually agree not to take other jobs, too.

You're basically describing every fractional CTO I've ever met.

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