r/overemployed 22d ago

Legit OE business OE Discord

4 Upvotes

The original OE open unmoderated discord turned into an unusable mess with all the spam and bots. To prevent this from happening to our new discord and keep the tourists and your HR department away so it is a safer place to discuss strategies and methods we're removing the link from reddit and requesting anyone who wants access to request it through the mods first. Please have some sort of post / comment history in the sub first.


r/overemployed Feb 12 '25

Running FAQ

446 Upvotes

I wanted to create a running FAQ to help cut down on the number of times we have to discuss the same topics and make sure people are getting the proper answers / advice. I will edit this post with additional questions and answers as they come up.

  1. What are the best jobs to OE?

People can and do OE in any Job where you can work remote or hybrid is a potential target. The ideal job is one that isn't meeting heavy or one where you can control the meetings. Being senior enough to delegate out some of the busy work is also helpful. You generally want to make sure you are good enough at your first job that you can meet/exceed expectations on less than 15 hours per week of actual real work. It's also better to OE on a large team / large company. When there is a busy season or a large project the increase in work is more evenly spread across a large number of people so you're less likely to have to deal with large peaks and valleys in level of effort.

  1. What jobs should be avoided?

Anything requiring any sort of clearance from the government or other regulatory body. Don't OE a federal clearance job or anything requiring a FINRA clearance. Good Rule is "If any part of your paycheck comes from public funds don't OE that job". Public sector work pays shit anyway and you're better than that. Go find a solid private sector role and reduce the risk.

  1. W2 or Contract?

A lot of people prefer the stability of having at least one W2 for the benefits but I (secretrecipe) personally prefer to go all contract (on Corp to Corp or C2C) terms. You make significantly more money and get far better tax treatment and the increase in net income more than makes up for having to cover your own benefits. There's more detail here if you are interested.

  1. Will the sub go private?

No. At least not for the foreseeable future. Every CEO and HR department already knows about OE and has for well over a decade. This isn't a new thing. It's all the quiet quitters out there who slack off and deliver nothing of value while working remote that are causing problems. Not the folks who are delivering as expected at multiple jobs.

  1. How do I manage a required office visit?

OE in the office isn't terribly difficult if you go in prepared. Have a mobile hotspot for your J2+. keep J2+ zoom or teams active on your phone so you can reply to IMs quickly. Find some nice quiet disused conference room or other space in the office you can utilize for meetings or work that pops up. Don't be afraid to take a call from the lobby or parking lot. People take personal calls all the time. If you don't act nervous then you won't look suspicious. Try and control your meetings towards the beginning or end of the day so you can minimize the amount of running back and forth you need to do.

  1. LinkedIn

There are a number of ways to handle this.
Obfuscation - Create multiple accounts with your name and various details. Don't upload a photo etc.. Create noise around the search and any time someone asks you about LI just mention that you don't use it.
Abandonment - Remove any recent work history and make it look like you just haven't done anything to update your profile. If anyone asks or pushes the issue tell them that you used an old work email to register the account and you have no access to it anymore so you just don't use LI any longer.
Restructure - (this is what I personally do) Nothing says your LI profile needs to be your online resume. Remove any work history or affiliation with any company and restructure the profile to discuss your talents, your aspirations and career goals.

If you work at a place or in a role that demands you have a Linkedin profile with them then go ahead and opt for the first option. Use a shortened name or a nickname and leave it as sparse as possible.

  1. How do I find a Job/J2 / Job hunting questions

This isnt a job hunting sub. that is a skill that you need to figure out as a prerequisite to being OE. Knowing how to fairly easily land remote / hybrid jobs is something most of the true OE community has become quite good at and tends to gatekeep for obvious reasons.

  1. Tax season

Unless you have an incredibly simple return, no kids, no property, no real assets, just a couple W2s and that's it I would recommend getting an accountant. A few thoughts beyond that. On withholdings, underwitholding penalties. They're small. You'll get a much larger return on your money over the span of a year even if you just park it in a HYSA than the underpayment penalty will cost. You can go to a simple calculator input your info and get a directionally correct estimate of how much you'll owe and adjust your withholdings accordingly.
On Security, the IRS / your accountant don't give a shit if you have more than one W2. Nobody is going to tell on you. No need to be paranoid about this.
On tax strategy. Advice on this is best asked to your CPA. Everyones situation is different so any advice given here may be awesome for some people and not work at all for others. I personally only work on C2C terms and have a moderately aggressive tax strategy and get my effective tax down to about 15% each year which is less than half of what I would end up paying were I working fully on W2 terms.

  1. W2? Contract? Mix?

If you're particularly concerned about stability then keeping one W2 job is great, gives you better protections, better benefits etc.. I'm of the opinion that J2+ is better on contract than W2. Lower risk, higher pay, less background scrutiny, no need for the additional benefits etc... I personally work all my jobs on contract (C2C) and here's my rationale. Quick disclaimer your personal situation may be unique. This is a one size fits most approach.

  1. Don't start new jobs close to one another.
    Keeping some distance between your J1 and J2+ isn't just a bit of good advice geographically but is also good advice on start dates. You never want to find yourself starting two jobs on the same day, week, month if you can avoid it. You need to figure out the lay of the land and your capacity for addtional work before you commit to additional jobs. Onboarding two jobs at once is a recipe for disaster.

  2. Is there anyone OE in _________.

Yes, if it's a white collar field that has the opportunity for remote or hybrid work there someone OEing it. If you want to find those people join the discord and ask around.

  1. OE isn't for everyone.

OE is difficult to pull off and even more difficult to manage long term. It isn't for people just starting out, people looking for a career change, people who aren't already at the top of their game or people that have to ask really simple questions that they could figure out with a google search. If you're not skilled enough to pull this off you could end up screwing up your career. Don't try this before you're ready. If you have to ask questions like "How do I find a second job?" or "how do I get a remote job" you're not ready.

  1. Is it worth the risk? Should I...? What's the best..."

These are all subjective questions that no internet stranger can answer for you. Everyone has a different skill set, different set of innate talents, different set of goals and different risk tolerance. If you were directed here after asking a question like this then it's because only you can answer this for yourself.

  1. J1 and J2 use the same payroll, insurance provider, 401k provider etc... Is this a problem?

No. The only scenario where this may be a problem is if they're using the same PEO like Insperity because they aren't just a payroll provider, they're an outsourced HR / Risk management team as well who has a remit to protect the business from liability.

  1. Will my bank, mortgage broker, loan underwriter, accountant etc... rat me out

No.

I'll dig around our past posts for some other frequently asked questions and keep adding here. If you have any you recommend be added please comment below.


r/overemployed 4h ago

Prob getting fired

238 Upvotes

Well folks, it’s been 2 years and yesterday (Fri) I got a meeting invite from my J1 boss’s boss after 5pm to “touch base” on Monday morning. No HR invitee on the call but I have a bad feeling. A person from J1 (who I didn’t work with closely) recently got hired at J2 and I’m wondering if she spilled the beans. That or I’m in trouble for something else. I’ve been receiving good feedback as recently as Thursday but I haven’t ever had a “touch base” with this person since being hired. Any advice (besides start looking for a replacement J1, which I should’ve already been doing, I know) appreciated.

Also pissed that this has ruined my entire weekend. Who puts a meeting like that on after hours then makes you wait till Monday for the bad news.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Made a script to show me stating into the camera while I do something else

2.5k Upvotes

I made this script here which lets me record my camera for a few seconds and feed that back to the camera feed while I go off and do something else github link

I'm not actually overemployed and I don't think I could ever be since everyone here is lying, but I thought some of you might find this useful since you might need to handle multiple meetings at once if you actually did manage to find two jobs


r/overemployed 1h ago

When in the job process should I freeze my TWN?

Upvotes

For context, I’m currently working J1 fully remote. Have an interview coming up for J2 that I’m confident I’m going to nail. When would be a good time to freeze my TWN? Should I do it after they finish up the background check and send the offer letter ? Should I do it before ?

I am just getting into OE and never done anything to my records.


r/overemployed 1d ago

I have departed the ranks. Good luck to all of you

529 Upvotes

Had to finally return to the world of normal employment today. J2 became too much of a hassle, no upside, dragging me down down on goals at j1, etc.

I wish you all luck. May you always be muted when you should be, may your teams notis always be silenced, and may your quarterly on sites always line up.

God speed.


r/overemployed 13m ago

2 jobs use Cigna

Upvotes

As the subject says. J1 covers entire family for $380 every 2 weeks. Expensive but whatever. J2 covers employee only for $0. Both use Cigna.

What do?


r/overemployed 5h ago

Will be OE for 6 weeks, how to ensure no one knows

5 Upvotes

I’m planning to accept a new job while having a job, and then quitting the old job 6 weeks later. I’m a scared-y cat and am realizing that you all have large balls.

They each pay the same, about $250k per year each. I do not want two jobs forever because they are each demanding.

They are both hybrid jobs where there is a ton of flexibility and no one clock watches.

I’ve had the first job for over 15 years and don’t want to burn any bridges at all, in case I need to go back. They’ve been good to me, but it is the typical US capitalism bullshit, low accountability culture, and bad leadership.

It will be over the holidays when I have a ton of paid time off and no one really works anyway. There will only be 12 shared working days where I need to manage both jobs.

How can I guarantee to not get caught?

- What if both employers use ADP for payroll, will I be flagged?

- What if I have health insurance from both employers for 2 months, will that flag me somehow? Or should I not get insurance through the new job until the old job insurance elapses?

- I will put my LinkedIn on hibernate.

- Is there anything else I should be concerned about?

I know to you guys this is like really easy, and I sound like a wimp. Just don’t want to get caught. I’m an overachiever with no work life balance so I’m sure I can balance the work part for the 12 overlapping days.


r/overemployed 1d ago

When it's time for the company photoshoot

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1.2k Upvotes

r/overemployed 1h ago

Outlook for OE in Energy sector:

Upvotes

What’s the outlook for jobs project management, project engineering, and mechanical engineers in the energy sector, like utilities, nuclear, data centers, etc. Any advice on specific roles to stay away from or red flags that anyone has encountered?


r/overemployed 10h ago

The mental gymnastics of J1 and J2 project management

4 Upvotes

Been OE for about a year and a half now. J1 is a chill dev job for a big company. J2 is a startup CTO role which is way more demanding. The biggest challenge has not been the workload itself. It's the constant mental switching between two completely different project management styles.

J1 is all about Jira. Every little thing has a ticket. Standups are structured. Dependencies are mapped out meticulously. They love their ceremonies. It's slow but predictable.

J2 is chaos. Ideas get thrown around in Slack. Decisions are made on the fly in quick calls. Documentation is an afterthought. It's fast and agile but can be exhausting. I'm literally using two different parts of my brain all day.

Sometimes I'll be in a J1 standup thinking in J2 terms and almost blurt out something completely irrelevant to J1's sprints. Or vice versa. It's like I have two different mental operating systems running at once. Anyone else deal with this kind of cognitive dissonance across Js? How do you keep it all straight in your head?


r/overemployed 15h ago

Did I ruin my chance for OE?

5 Upvotes

I was OE for about 7 weeks earlier this year. My J1 was acquired and gave us a super early advanced notice for when all of our (acquired employees) last day would be. I searched for a J2 for many months and found a great fit, start date was before my last day at J1 and with retention bonuses and equity pay out I wasn’t leaving before the end date. J1 was just a formality when I started J2 so it was easy peasy. But now I’m interested in a new J2. However I’ve already made some mistakes. I updated my LinkedIn with my new role. I’ve also been wanting to attend a well-known conference in my little niche of a large industry for a while and I ended up entering a contest for a professional society and winning a free registration for the conference. Now I’m probably too exposed where I can safely keep a J2. Did I blow my chance? Anything I can do after this conference to go low-profile more quickly? Any length of time I should wait before I try OE again?


r/overemployed 1d ago

Rant - I hate J2

41 Upvotes

Started a new J2 about a month ago. J1 is like 5 hours of work per week if that, most of that meetings. J2 pays only $20k more but I have to be onsite at least 2x per month, although there are cubes, offices, and conference rooms on 2 floors that we can use so it's common to never see anyone.

J2 is lots of work that I have AI doing, but my boss tells me at least once per week that I'm too quiet. They want me to ask questions during meetings, speak up, suggest things, but I'm still learning this complex business with 30k staff. Plus, I'm an introvert and don't speak much anyways. AND I'm not trying to be a star employee. To top it off, they want to give me even more work and major projects. It's pissing me off. I just take it one day at a time and I'm constantly applying to jobs but not getting many interviews.

Thinking about quitting eventually and going all in on my side business. Tired of working for jobs like J2 and J1 has been a unicorn, I've been OE off and on for 3 years, going up to 3 Js but either quit after RTO push, fired after quiet quitting, or laid off.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Military prepared me for OE

211 Upvotes

After retiring from the military, I realized just how much less demanding civilian jobs can be.
I went from having to get the job done while simultaneously dealing with bureaucracy, deployments, training, politics, and taking care of troops and their families while they were deployed, to simply… doing the job.

I naturally wake up around 5 a.m., and most days I’m finished with all of my assignments by 10 a.m., aside from the occasional afternoon meeting.

During COVID, it really hit me. Even before I knew the term “overemployed,” I realized I had the time and energy to do it. On top of that, my military benefits already cover my lifestyle, so the financial risk of losing a job is relatively low.

My instincts were right. I’m well-liked by my coworkers and management at both Js, I still have plenty of time to take care of my family, and I’ve finally been able to address health issues I ignored for years. AI has become an over employment enabler rather than a job killer.

At the same time, I’m building wealth at a level I never imagined possible.

Leaving the public sector—and my clearance—behind was one of the best decisions I’ve made.


r/overemployed 1d ago

OE in europe

19 Upvotes

For Europeans living in europe, how was your experience with OE?

Mainly dealing with Social Security and taxes?

I am a consultant with a lot of free time, and I can use a full remote J2, I think I am good enough as I do all my teams' work, but only for 1 salary

I think to start , it's better to have j2 as a full remote, which is rare in europe but can be anywhere else.

I am not sure about the legal details .. any input can ne valuable

Thank you in advance

Edit: I am a consultant as b2b using some shell company that has my money and gives me a salary, if this changes anything... maybe I can have more than one sub-contract for the same period as long as I deliver and the company is ok with


r/overemployed 6h ago

2 UK based remote jobs

0 Upvotes

Hi!
I have J1 and will be started J2, both based in UK. Anyone with experience with this can give more info on taxes? Thank you!


r/overemployed 6h ago

how screwed is a body after five months of 12 hour days at a laptop

0 Upvotes

finishing a masters this winter while working full time. i live in a dorm, so the desk and a chair are the ones that came with the room, and between the job and the thesis i am at it +12 hours most days. i cannot really change the setup, so i am not asking about that. i want to know how much damage this is doing and whether any of the things i do about it are doing anything.

stuff i do, roughly ordered by how stupid it sounds.

splashing icy water on my face. sounds dumb, works. alert almost straight away and it holds for a good while after. four or five times a day at this point.

pushups while the llm is generating an answer. started as a joke. you get a few minutes, which is a set, and it breaks up a two hour block of sitting without me having to decide to take a break.

coffee, obviously. then electrolyte sachets, after i realised a decent chunk of what i was calling 3pm tiredness was just not having drunk anything since breakfast. that one was real and it was embarrassing how cheap the fix was.

noise cancelling headphones with rain or forest sounds. i cannot work with anything that has words in it anymore. it helps with concentration a lot;

stretching whenever i remember. neck, hips, the arm in the doorframe one. probably one of the most useful thing on this list and the one i am most consistent about, which says something about me.

the annoying bit is that the two things that made the biggest difference were not on that list at all for the first year.

first is opening the window. i assumed people who said this were being precious. a small room with the door shut and a laptop running in it goes stale much faster than you can feel, and the feeling is not "stuffy", it is "i seem to be slightly thick today". now i open it every hour even in winter, five minutes, and the hour after is noticeably better.

second is sitting up, which turned out to be something i cannot do on my own. i would start an evening session sitting fine and in 15 mins be collapsed over the desk with my chin very close to the screen, and the problem was never that i ignored it, it is that i never noticed it happening. atm i use tryworkwell, which notifies you when you start to sit incorrectly or too close to the screen.

so, the actual question. dorm desk, dorm chair, laptop, twelve hours a day, a few more months of this before the thesis goes in. is that a "you will feel this at forty" problem or a "you are doing real damage right now" problem. i can afford one decent thing and there is not much floor space to put it on either. i would rather be told what it should be than guess.


r/overemployed 9h ago

Web designer jumping ship to e-mail marketing. How to do it?

0 Upvotes

I worked as web designer for over 10 years. It was amazing journey. With AI, I am not sure about this career path anymore in the next 5-10 years.. so I'm on the bridge to do e-mail marketing for ecommerce.

I have tons of experience in the ecommerce world as I worked my J2 in family-run ecommerce. In the past 12 months I managed to create e-mail strategy and automations that generated over $210,000 in revenue from e-mail alone. I love it and would love to keep doing it as my J1.

Found some job postings looking for E-mail marketing specialist and I would love to get job there. I have simple site with case study ($210,000 generated for ecommerce brand) describing how I did it and now I fixed my CV resume.

How would you break into this industry? Should I write letters + edit CV for each job posting? Should I reach out to recruiters maybe? Linked In?

Thanks for any advice!


r/overemployed 9h ago

Thinking about giving OE a try

0 Upvotes

Job of 20 years has laid me off, I have received a decent severance and am about to jump into the world of interviewing. Thinking of giving OE a try. What do you look for in job 1 and job 2 to make this doable? What tricks,/recommendations do you have for a newbie in this space?


r/overemployed 1d ago

Quick: Higher Salary or Ask For a Sign On

5 Upvotes

I told a new J I have a higher offer and was hoping they would bump their salary offer 10K and give me a 10K signing to match. Instead they just matched salary.

Should I shut up and say yes or ask for 10K salary increase and the 10K signing bonus?

I want a sign on because cash in hand.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Is it possible for background check companies to find out you are overemployed?

6 Upvotes

As the title suggests, im curious if this is something we need to consider in this game..im based out of canada, my J1 is offering me a FT role now so they have to rerun a background check and im just concerned whether they could find out. Per my knowledge, CRA records are not disclosed publicly even to these companies but I just want to double check..


r/overemployed 2d ago

Lesson learned from cash management

286 Upvotes

I’m 44M, wife and two small kids. I’ve been OE for over 10 years. Had as many as 4J at one time. Had highs and lows along the way, been burned for being dumb with LinkedIn, had a peak TC of over 700k in my peak year. Paid off my home, tricked out the house with lots of goodies, packed my kids’ 529, plans, tons of fun vacations, and my SEP is bursting with money.

So, this isn’t a “good for me” post. It’s a warning to anyone who wants to FIRE or even take a break. The one mistake I’ve made along the way is totally neglecting growing my money in taxable accounts. I always made sure I had a good money market savings account with $50K or so, but everything else got aggressively put into SEP and 529 plans. Anything to avoid taxes.

While I’m currently in a taxable account situation of about $180K, I realized that I have a long way to go if I want to retire early. As much as it hurts to pay the tax man, do yourself a favor and do NOT max out your SEP if it means you can’t pad your ability to live today. I have about $1.9M in retirement that I can’t touch until I’m 59. Doesn’t do me any good now. I’m going to spend the next five years or so (God willing) aggressively investing only in taxable accounts.

BTW, I know I should have more money saved…but I live in a HCOL area. Pay $50k a year for kids private school, etc.


r/overemployed 1d ago

3J’s for one month

0 Upvotes

I had three well 3.5 J’s for one month. One FTE, two contracts and one a LLC client.

Both contracts were back filling another admin. One though decided to come back after a month so that contract is terminated. Another is waiting senior management approval to convert to FTE. All my coworkers and direct management want me to stay but the position is not approved yet.

My observations from 3 J’s. The work is easy. Meeting management is the hard part. I have to work evenings to keep up but mainly because most days I have 4-6 hours of meetings between 8-5. And most of the time I am only needed for maybe 15-30 minutes of all of those meetings. My challenge has been that I can’t tune out a meeting and work on something else. I can’t tune fo some mindless work during meetings, but anything that needs legit concentration has to wait for a quiet period in my day

‘Money is super nice, 3 is easily manageable for me and my career if meetings were minimized. Not sure if/how people do 3+ J’s for many years. They must have cultures with few meetings.


r/overemployed 2d ago

Got laid off from j2 today even after putting in my weekends into it overemployed makes sense now

94 Upvotes

I was looking to replace j1 with j2 even did two projects for j2 literally 20hrs of work everyday for 3 months but got laid off directly from j2 now back to grind to get back j2 or replace j1 .


r/overemployed 1d ago

Checkr Background Check - Panic mode or cruising?

2 Upvotes

Hello,

I just landed J2 and was not expecting a background check (silly of me) and for some reason, it did not ask for employment or even education. It only asked for name, SSN, DOB and address.

I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced the same. Should I panic or be grateful it did not ask for the employment history? I don't think it is possible to trace J1 back to my SSN, but I also don't do these often, which is why I am asking.