{"id":3512,"date":"2025-07-12T06:05:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T06:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/3512\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T06:05:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T06:05:03","slug":"gen-zs-overemployed-solution-for-a-broken-economy-5-jobs-and-3k-per-day-its-totally-legal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/3512\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z’s ‘overemployed’ solution for a broken economy: 5 jobs and $3K per day. It’s totally legal"},"content":{"rendered":"

As news of Soham Parekh, the software engineer who has been accused of working for several Silicon Valley startups<\/a> at the same time, spreads on social media, bosses have been venting their suspicions about their own remote workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their instincts may not be wrong. Post-pandemic remote work has quietly created a loophole that many, like Parekh, have exploited to hold down several gigs at once.<\/p>\n

Research by Paychex from back in 2023<\/a> found a staggering 40% of workers were juggling two jobs. But Gen Z were the most prolific \u201cpolyworkers,\u201d with 93% of the youngest generation of workers splitting their time between multiple employers. In comparison, just 28% of baby boomers and 23% of Gen Xers admitted to holding down three or more jobs.<\/p>\n

For workers, it can mean paychecks in the tens of thousands, the ability to maximize their earning potential while they\u2019re young and child-free (and not yet displaced by AI<\/a>), and retire early<\/a>.\u00a0One Reddit user<\/a> claims to have just landed a fifth concurrent job, bringing their income to over $3,000 a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But employers are complaining about shoddy quality of work<\/a>, ghosted meetings, and a feeling they\u2019ve been \u201cscammed.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the law says about holding down multiple gigs<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for disgruntled bosses, employment experts say there\u2019s no law outright prohibiting holding down multiple jobs at once\u2014at least not in the U.S. or the U.K.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Lakeland, an employment lawyer at Laytons, tells Fortune that \u201cit depends on what the contract of employment says, but most full-time contracts of employment will have a clause which says that an employee will devote their \u2018their whole time and attention\u2019 to their work and not have alternative employment outside of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason for this, he adds, is usually to stop employees working for competitors\u2014\u201cbut also they want their employees to turn up on a Monday morning and be able to work productively.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, the burden is mostly on employers to protect themselves. And with \u201coveremployment\u201d being a very new issue, they\u2019ll need to check the scope of the restrictions in their contracts\u2014and police it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, it is legal to do this in the U.S.,\u201d Peter Rahbar, employment attorney, workplace issues expert, and founder of the Rahbar Group, echoes. \u201cThe key consideration for employees is whether their employer has a policy, or there is a provision in their offer letter or employment agreement that would prohibit holding other employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before accepting secret side jobs, Rahbar says employees should look into whether they \u201cpresent a conflict of interest, or are competitive with, the primary job.\u201d If the answer is yes, he\u2019d \u201cstrongly advise that the employee not move forward, as it could present additional legal issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For employers, Rahbar recommends moonlighting policies\u2014and outright prohibiting \u201cother employment\u201d in contracts. But on a more human level, he suggests paying employees well. \u201cMost employees take other jobs for money, not intellectual curiosity,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

As Parekh, the software engineer who sparked the overemployment debate, told the tech show TBPN<\/a>: \u201cNo one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast, managers should make sure to communicate frequently with their employees; this will not only help build trust and achieve team goals, but reduces the opportunity to do other work,\u201d Rahbar adds.<\/p>\n

Even if being overemployed is technically legal, that doesn\u2019t mean there won\u2019t be consequences<\/p>\n

Just as there is no outright federal law preventing workers from holding down multiple gigs, there\u2019s no law protecting that right either. \u201cIt would also not be illegal for an employer to fire the employee if it found out,\u201d employment lawyer Tom Spiggle from the Spiggle Law Firm highlights.<\/p>\n

Where workers could land on the wrong side of the law is if they share confidential information from one company with another, or work for a competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that situation, the employee could be legally liable in some states for interfering with the initial employer\u2019s business,\u201d Spiggle explains. \u201cThe fancy legal term is \u2018interference with prospective business advantage.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

There are also tighter legal restrictions for those working for the federal government and some government contractors, particularly in the defense space. But in most cases, he says workers would simply be in breach of their contract, and while they could be \u201csubject to monetary damages,\u201d the most likely scenario would be they just get sacked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lewis Maleh, CEO of executive recruitment agency Bentley Lewis, says he\u2019s seen multiple workers dismissed for this exact reason. \u201cIf someone is doing a full-time perm job and being paid accordingly, they should not be doing another full-time perm role unless the company is okay with it,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ethical, and [it] will cost you down the road if you get found out.\u201d<\/p>\n

And apparently, the chances of being caught are fairly high. Maleh says workers have been exposed through LinkedIn<\/a> activity, tax-record checks, background-screening companies, and even by accident when a client happened to be on a Zoom<\/a> interview for another job.<\/p>\n

Even if the work is getting done, Maleh says employers care because:<\/p>\n

It creates trust issues: If you\u2019re hiding this, what else are you hiding?<\/p>\n

Tax implications.<\/p>\n

Confidentiality risks: Sharing or reusing sensitive information across companies\u2014intentionally or not\u2014can pose legal issues.<\/p>\n

Availability concerns: You may be unreachable during emergencies, meetings, or required travel.<\/p>\n

Intellectual property disputes: Anything created on company time may become a gray area if you\u2019re splitting hours between employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s short-term financial gain and potential long-term career suicide,\u201d he concluded. \u201cAlways be honest\u2026 The recruitment world is small, especially in senior roles, and it could impact references for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that second or third job really is that important to your livelihood, the safest bet is bringing it up with your employer right away.<\/p>\n

As Lakeland says: \u201cThere is nothing stopping an employee from negotiating a variation to their contract, but that means being open, honest, and upfront about what you want to do and asking the employer\u2019s permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did your boss catch you for holding multiple jobs at once? Fortune wants to hear from you. Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As news of Soham Parekh, the software engineer who has been accused of working for several Silicon Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,524,525,4084,153,134,2539,3899,4087,4085,4086,4088],"class_list":{"0":"post-3512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-career-advice","10":"tag-careers","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-layoffs","15":"tag-management","16":"tag-retention","17":"tag-side-hustle","18":"tag-talent-acquisition","19":"tag-trends"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}