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I have anecdotes from the hiring side. I've only seen the two-jobs phenomenon a couple times in my career, but it always involved someone getting a new job and

I have anecdotes from the hiring side. I've only seen the two-jobs phenomenon a couple times in my career, but it always involved someone getting a new job and then simply not quitting their last remote job. They eventually realize they can collect two paychecks until their old job catches on and lays them off. However, it's not that difficult to spot if you're paying attention. Two job workers tend to: 1. Have elaborate excuses for why they can't update their LinkedIn profile to show the new job. Obviously they can't tip the old company off that they have a new job. 2. Have mysteriously complicated and ever-changing schedule conflicts throughout the day. We support (and encourage) flexible work, but when someone is disappearing throughout the day and can't reliably jump on a phone call (despite supposedly being online and active) without ample notice, they're probably doing something else. 3. Are extreme people-pleasers in superficial ways (want to keep up appearances) but only actually deliver good work when it's high profile and they know they're in the spotlight. 4. Are loathed by their teammates after a while, because everyone they work with slowly catches on that the person is absent-mindedly doing the bare minimum to not get fired. Inevitably, the teammates have to pick up the slack and do extra work to compensate. Few people are better positioned to recognize this than the people who are in the trenches with the person all day. 5. Have a different jobs on their resume with start and end dates that don't match what you confirm with the company. That's because they need to massage the start/end dates to appear as though they weren't overlapping the two jobs. 6. Are religious about "If I get my work done, why does it matter when I work?" Sounds great, but then they play every game in the book to shrink "their work" to be as small as possible and move the "done" part as far in the future as possible. End result is that team mates suffer (see #4).

bobwaycott 5y ago
> 1. Have elaborate excuses for why they can't update their LinkedIn profile to show the new job. Obviously they can't tip the old company off that they have a new job. Why is this being stated as if a person is required to update LinkedIn with their current employer? What employer is pressuring new hires for an explanation on why they haven’t publicly claimed their new relationship status? I don’t often update LI, but your phrasing of someone having “elaborate excuses” means there’s pressure from an employer (or coworkers?) for an LI update before anyone could even receive such “elaborate excuses” … and that’s just plain weird.
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > What employer is pressuring new hires for an explanation on why they haven’t publicly claimed their new relationship status? I honestly don't care for in-person employees, but it's something I ask remote employees to do for this exact reason. If a remote employee makes vague excuses for why they must keep their old employer on their LinkedIn, it's worth investigating further. Fortunately it's usually easy to call up the old company and confirm the person's start and end dates. Companies love to learn that one of their employees has started a new job but hasn't actually quit yet.
  - actually_a_dog 5y ago
    > I honestly don't care for in-person employees, but it's something I ask remote employees to do for this exact reason. It sounds like you're just nosy, then. The content of my LinkedIn profile is no more your business than the content of my Tinder profile, and just as relevant to my work.
    - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
      > The content of my LinkedIn profile is no more your business than the content of my Tinder profile, and just as relevant to my work. What? LinkedIn profiles are literally about your work. It's not about being nosy. It's about noticing inconsistencies. If someone is going through the trouble of maintaining a LinkedIn profile but they're also listing a different company as their current employer, it's time to start investigating. LinkedIn isn't the final say, obviously. However, it can act as a canary in the coalmine for further investigation.
      - yummy_box 5y ago
        Can you tell me what company do you hire for, so I don't apply? People's LinkedIn profile are private to them, none of your business. I wonder if you just hire in 3rd world countries, or focus on hiring people in need with no leverage, coz, if you ask me about my LI profile, I will tell you to take a hike.
iwork3jobs 5y ago
I work 3 jobs for 1 year, had 2 only for maybe 5. Most of your observations are correct but I can tell you that I do not have it that hard to synch the meetings to make them not overlap. And I make an conscious effort of being really prompt when answering queries. I am perhaps more prompt than many that do not do what I do, since eI would not like people to suspect what I am doing. LinkedIn has proven a fucking pain indeed, and that is why I am not active on it anymore.
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > LinkedIn has proven a fucking pain indeed, and that is why I am not active on it anymore. Yep. There's another person in this thread trying to argue it away, but I've found LinkedIn to be a huge canary in the coalmine in these situations. Someone who insists on maintaining an active LinkedIn profile but also isn't updating it with a new job isn't a red flag by itself (people just forget, obviously). It is, however, another piece of the puzzle. If someone updates their LinkedIn and broadcasts their new job to all of their peers then I'm much less concerned.
  - iwork3jobs 5y ago
    It's interesting that you actually spotted them. In my experience it's really hard for people to tell what I'm doing, but I guess the expectations at the companies I contracted for were much lower and by comparison, I actually did my job. Most people seemed pretty happy with what I delivered. I was the most unsatisfied with it, to be honest.
actually_a_dog 5y ago
Regarding #1, why do I need to make any excuse to anybody about the content of my LinkedIn profile?
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  You don't have to have a LinkedIn profile at all. I really don't care. But if someone has clearly gone through the trouble of setting up a LinkedIn, listing all of their jobs and details on it, and collecting a lot of connections, but for some reason they must continue listing their previous employer as their current employer, it's worth further investigation.
  - actually_a_dog 5y ago
    Why?
    - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
      If someone joins your company as a remote employee but publicly advertises themselves as working for someone else, you investigate further. The "why" is in the linked article: It's in the playbook of people trying to manipulate you into letting them work half as much as their coworkers (thereby screwing over coworkers, who are forced to pick up the slack). If you care about your team, you don't sit idle while one of the employees is slacking off, putting in half the effort as their peers, or manipulating their way into doing less than others.
      - actually_a_dog 5y ago
        > If you care about your team, you don't sit idle while one of the employees is slacking off. There we go! "Slacking off" is not relevant. What's relevant is that you, as my manager at a company I already work for, are happy with my work, or not. It shouldn't matter whether it takes 100%, 80%, 50%, or 20% of my capacity to make you happy. This would be completely non-controversial in the vast majority of jobs.

bobwaycott 5y ago

> 1. Have elaborate excuses for why they can't update their LinkedIn profile to show the new job. Obviously they can't tip the old company off that they have a new job. Why is this being stated as if a person is required to update LinkedIn with their current employer? What employer is pressuring new hires for an explanation on why they haven’t publicly claimed their new relationship status? I don’t often update LI, but your phrasing of someone having “elaborate excuses” means there’s pressure from an employer (or coworkers?) for an LI update before anyone could even receive such “elaborate excuses” … and that’s just plain weird.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> What employer is pressuring new hires for an explanation on why they haven’t publicly claimed their new relationship status? I honestly don't care for in-person employees, but it's something I ask remote employees to do for this exact reason. If a remote employee makes vague excuses for why they must keep their old employer on their LinkedIn, it's worth investigating further. Fortunately it's usually easy to call up the old company and confirm the person's start and end dates. Companies love to learn that one of their employees has started a new job but hasn't actually quit yet.
- actually_a_dog 5y ago
  > I honestly don't care for in-person employees, but it's something I ask remote employees to do for this exact reason. It sounds like you're just nosy, then. The content of my LinkedIn profile is no more your business than the content of my Tinder profile, and just as relevant to my work.
  - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
    > The content of my LinkedIn profile is no more your business than the content of my Tinder profile, and just as relevant to my work. What? LinkedIn profiles are literally about your work. It's not about being nosy. It's about noticing inconsistencies. If someone is going through the trouble of maintaining a LinkedIn profile but they're also listing a different company as their current employer, it's time to start investigating. LinkedIn isn't the final say, obviously. However, it can act as a canary in the coalmine for further investigation.
    - yummy_box 5y ago
      Can you tell me what company do you hire for, so I don't apply? People's LinkedIn profile are private to them, none of your business. I wonder if you just hire in 3rd world countries, or focus on hiring people in need with no leverage, coz, if you ask me about my LI profile, I will tell you to take a hike.

iwork3jobs 5y ago

I work 3 jobs for 1 year, had 2 only for maybe 5. Most of your observations are correct but I can tell you that I do not have it that hard to synch the meetings to make them not overlap. And I make an conscious effort of being really prompt when answering queries. I am perhaps more prompt than many that do not do what I do, since eI would not like people to suspect what I am doing. LinkedIn has proven a fucking pain indeed, and that is why I am not active on it anymore.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> LinkedIn has proven a fucking pain indeed, and that is why I am not active on it anymore. Yep. There's another person in this thread trying to argue it away, but I've found LinkedIn to be a huge canary in the coalmine in these situations. Someone who insists on maintaining an active LinkedIn profile but also isn't updating it with a new job isn't a red flag by itself (people just forget, obviously). It is, however, another piece of the puzzle. If someone updates their LinkedIn and broadcasts their new job to all of their peers then I'm much less concerned.
- iwork3jobs 5y ago
  It's interesting that you actually spotted them. In my experience it's really hard for people to tell what I'm doing, but I guess the expectations at the companies I contracted for were much lower and by comparison, I actually did my job. Most people seemed pretty happy with what I delivered. I was the most unsatisfied with it, to be honest.

actually_a_dog 5y ago

Regarding #1, why do I need to make any excuse to anybody about the content of my LinkedIn profile?

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
You don't have to have a LinkedIn profile at all. I really don't care. But if someone has clearly gone through the trouble of setting up a LinkedIn, listing all of their jobs and details on it, and collecting a lot of connections, but for some reason they must continue listing their previous employer as their current employer, it's worth further investigation.
- actually_a_dog 5y ago
  Why?
  - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
    If someone joins your company as a remote employee but publicly advertises themselves as working for someone else, you investigate further. The "why" is in the linked article: It's in the playbook of people trying to manipulate you into letting them work half as much as their coworkers (thereby screwing over coworkers, who are forced to pick up the slack). If you care about your team, you don't sit idle while one of the employees is slacking off, putting in half the effort as their peers, or manipulating their way into doing less than others.
    - actually_a_dog 5y ago
      > If you care about your team, you don't sit idle while one of the employees is slacking off. There we go! "Slacking off" is not relevant. What's relevant is that you, as my manager at a company I already work for, are happy with my work, or not. It shouldn't matter whether it takes 100%, 80%, 50%, or 20% of my capacity to make you happy. This would be completely non-controversial in the vast majority of jobs.