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There's an old saying: in you need something done fast, give it to the most busy person in the office. It sounds like bullshit but it works. This kind of peopl

There's an old saying: in you need something done fast, give it to the most busy person in the office. It sounds like bullshit but it works. This kind of people needing to juggle two job are always "on", and probably have by necessity a much higher ability to prioritize correctly. I'm guessing here, but considering they managed not to get fired after 2 months, I think I'm guessing good. So yeah, they won't be doing all the bells and whistles the middle manager wants from them. But if you manage to structure your company so the important stuff is the one that actually needs to gets done - they won't be a bad employee. Possible even above average. Note here that the opposite of the overachiever with two jobs is the guy that pushes papers and stays on facebook. How much is he doing _valuable_ work in 8 hours? Yeah. Sure, we'd all want perfectly adjusted people that work 8 hours like clockwork then go play golf. I personally don't know any.

ramraj07 4y ago
This was confirmed in the nytimes article - all the interviewed folks agreed they just got really good at avoiding BS meetings and such which we can all learn from.
- jstx1 4y ago
  You can only avoid so many meetings though. In software most teams have some kind of regular standup schedule. How do you know that the standup times of 2-3 jobs won't overlap before starting those jobs? Or what if the standup schedule for one jobs changes and now you can't attend? You can only miss so many of these before it's a big red flag.
  - pcurve 4y ago
    L can’t speak for others but you can’t get away with this for too long at my company which is a large healthcare entity. I’ve fired four contractors over this but that don’t keep them from keep trying.
  - ramraj07 4y ago
    Not saying it’s scrupulous but it’s discussed as well - they generally have two laptops and apparently have two zooms going at the same time at times too it seems. I can see how you could choreograph around two stand ups like that with practice!

ramraj07 4y ago

This was confirmed in the nytimes article - all the interviewed folks agreed they just got really good at avoiding BS meetings and such which we can all learn from.

jstx1 4y ago
You can only avoid so many meetings though. In software most teams have some kind of regular standup schedule. How do you know that the standup times of 2-3 jobs won't overlap before starting those jobs? Or what if the standup schedule for one jobs changes and now you can't attend? You can only miss so many of these before it's a big red flag.
- pcurve 4y ago
  L can’t speak for others but you can’t get away with this for too long at my company which is a large healthcare entity. I’ve fired four contractors over this but that don’t keep them from keep trying.
- ramraj07 4y ago
  Not saying it’s scrupulous but it’s discussed as well - they generally have two laptops and apparently have two zooms going at the same time at times too it seems. I can see how you could choreograph around two stand ups like that with practice!