Underworked and over employed

I've been having a few issues getting this first issue out, so if you've already received it, sorry! Also, this article first appeared in?the Substack edition?of the Future Work/Life newsletter on the 8th September 2022.

The Writing:

Isaac lives in San Francisco with his young family and has what many would describe as a great work/life.

He works less than 40 hours a week, using the technical skills he's developed over 20 years to pull in over $1 million a year. While, by any measure, that's an excellent salary, in Silicon Valley, it's not unusual.

Isaac also works for multiple businesses at once.

Again, this isn't rare in a tech world where many adopt a portfolio approach to their career. You often hear about people doing one or more of these alongside their main gig:

• Angel investing
• Sitting on multiple boards
• Advising early-stage businesses
• Running all manner of side-hustles

Yet, when interviewed by?previous Future Work/Life podcast?guest Danny Fortson ?for?The Times, Isaac disguised his voice and used a fake name.

Why?

Isaac is one of the leading proponents of a growing (if still niche) work trend:

'Overemployment'.

What’s overemployment?

Simply put, more than one company employ Isaac, but?they?don't know that.

With three 'full-time' jobs and one more role as a contractor, four businesses believe he spends all his time working on their behalf. And it's this last point, of course, that causes such consternation when people hear it. The duplicity.

Because forget for a moment that Isaac hasn't told the companies that they're not 'exclusive' and what's so bad about this arrangement?

As I outlined above, it's common practice for successful entrepreneurs and business leaders to hold multiple roles. It's also the basis of many freelance and contractor roles. The idea of a fractional CxO – a senior executive who splits their time between different organisations – is popular for start-ups and scale-ups, for example. These companies need expertise but can't necessarily afford the individual full-time. Makes complete sense, right?

So, all of this raises a few interesting points:

1.Why isn’t Isaac honest about it?

This is clearly the main issue here, so let’s get it out of the way.

As a highly-skilled and experienced engineer, Isaac can command a hefty salary or day rate. Given current market demand, he could transparently secure multiple roles within the right companies. He's in a position of strength.

What’s the incentive for him not to do so?

Because highly-paid roles come with big responsibilities and expectations on time. In the interests of maintaining a stress-free life, Isaac's taking advantage of inefficiencies in the market to work in multiple?mid-level?roles, meaning he can complete work for each more quickly and transfer his efforts to the next job - and the next, etc and so on.

Rather than work 80 hours a week in one $1 million job, he works 40 hours a week across four $250k jobs.

More to the point, though, how’s he getting away with it?

2. We’re experiencing a skills shortage (but only certain skills)

Isaac can pull off this trick because of an imbalance in the labour market.

The supply of those with high technical skills isn’t keeping pace with the demand driven by technological improvements and digital transformation. As long as businesses are desperate for people to fill roles, there'll be misalignment in terms of:

1. Pay – disproportionately high for developers and engineers
2. Flexibility - when a business is desperate for your services, it’s much easier to dictate the terms of your working arrangements

The second point is also a consequence and externality of an emerging global, distributed workforce. While technology has enabled companies and individuals to connect irrespective of international boundaries, organisations haven’t developed the systems and expertise needed to manage them effectively.

Which leads us to one final (and critical) question…

3. How haven’t his managers spotted it?

The cause here isn’t anything new.

There was a general issue with management training and skills before Covid, but now we're operating in a remote or hybrid world, many businesses are really suffering. If managers could accurately determine what success looks like and what's required to deliver it, it would be much trickier for the 'over-employed' to pull a fast one. A clear understanding of the skill level and workload required to do great work would allow the manager to pick up if someone was doing the bare minimum – or in Isaac's, only working for a quarter of his contracted hours.

But as?a recent CMI survey?found, 60% of managers say they don’t have the skills required to manage a hybrid workforce, let alone a fully distributed one.

What's next?

Consider this question again - is overemployment really such a big deal?

• Since Isaac is overqualified, should he be penalised for being able to complete his work more quickly?
• Who cares how he gets it done if he delivers on time and to the company's expectations?

Dishonesty aside, perhaps overemployment, and particularly the anger it evokes in people, is a problem rooted in, and of concern only to, poorly run companies.

And it’s another example of how the nature of work is changing.

• The idea of working one job, for one employer, for years at a time is on its way out.
• Working for more than one company simultaneously will become increasingly common.
• The best companies will judge the value of the people who work for them on what they deliver, not how many hours they work.

While the economic slowdown may put a temporary squeeze on the trend, as so often, innovation on the fringes - like those of Isaac and his disciples - gives us a glimpse into the possible future.

Have a great week,

Ollie

The Listening:

Danny shared his conversation with ‘Isaac’ - with his voice disguised a chipmunk - on his?Danny in the Valley?podcast, which you can listen to?here, and you can also read his original article in?The Times?here.

The Reading:

MIT Sloan Management Review has just created?this nice little FREE resource?giving you “new ideas and insights to help you lead your team and achieve your goals.” It includes some interesting stuff on themes like meeting-free days, happiness, resilience and how to avoid creating a toxic work culture.

More data from Stanford’s? Nick Bloom suggests the increase in the number of people working remotely is permanent:

This is a great analysis?of why hiring freezes tell us more about the overall employment market than headline-grabbing lay-offs at tech companies. Thanks to Hung Lee ?for flagging this one.

My book,?Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, will be published on 17th January 2023. You can pre-order your copy?HERE.