Hey Boss, Can I Work From a Cruise Ship? How Over Employment Hurts us All

Recently, we placed a candidate into a sales position with a great company that offered robust pay, excellent benefits and career advancement. Shortly after starting, the employee approached his manager to say that effective immediately, he would be working from a tropical cruise ship for exactly two weeks out of the month.

Every month.

His explanation? “I work better from a boat.” Now, keep in mind this was an outside sales position where you need to visit clients to close deals. He was responsible for specific accounts and territories all in the US. The only logical explanation for him to make this ridiculous request was that he had a side gig on a cruise ship or elsewhere and wanted to keep doing it while drawing a full-time salary from our client.

What Is Over Employment, Exactly?

There has been a huge rise in digital nomads who can truly manage their job from anywhere in the world. And it is wonderful that an IT guy can sit in a Polynesian cabana and deliver just as well as if he was in a gray cubicle. But the flexibility to work somewhere other than in an office still assumes a fair trade of 40-hours for full-time pay.

At Cambridge, we have had a positive experience with remote workers. All of our employees work from their homes, and they are incredibly committed and productive. They appreciate our trust in them as well as the flexibility of remote work and never abuse it.

Still, a few times per year, I find myself in a conversation with a hiring manager who agrees with Jamie Dimon that employees need to be in the office to be effective. One argument is that because they can’t be seen, employees will elect not to work. My rebuttal has always been that as long as they are performing well, I’m not concerned. Taking a few minutes of non-work time to manage a personal task like walking the dog or registering kids for school can refresh and re-energize the employee so they are MORE productive. What matters is whether they are giving 100% and meeting the requirements of the job.

Unfortunately, my argument is getting weaker because of the disturbing new trend of “Over-Employment.” A remote worker accepts two, three jobs or more, accepting full pay from each while lying to their employers about how they are spending their work hours. These “Time Thieves” share ideas online about how to maintain the illusion of performing while doing the bare minimum at each job. For them, gaming the system is itself a game as they share tips on how to manage a TEAMS call, how to represent the appearance of progress on a project, how to solve the issue of duplicate Linked In profiles, etc.

Why Are Employees Choosing Over Employment?

I have read the justification for this breach of ethics and professionalism and it is profoundly childish. Essentially, it boils down to “big bad corporations are mean, so I’ll show them!”

Accepting an offer to accept 40 hours of pay for 40 hours of legitimate work and then violating that compact is a stunning ethical breach and potentially a legal one as well*. Making excuses for it by saying employers don’t care about their workers doesn’t excuse breaking a contract- either implied or written -by cheating. And it hurts EVERYONE.

Like the clown on the football team whose smart mouth results in everyone on the team having to do 50 pushups, the selfishness of the overemployed, costs everyone else.

First, when a company’s productivity dips their revenue dips, reducing resources to support and even hire employees. Second, someone else has to pick up the slack for the employee who is only putting in a few hours a day. Third, other serious candidates don’t have the opportunity to fill the role to make a living and enhance their skills. But the greatest damage being done is to all the honest remote workers who stand to lose at least the trust of their employers, and at most, their ability to work remotely.

Now back to that employee I mentioned at the top of this article, the one who attempted to work two jobs, one on land and one at sea? His request was thrown overboard, along with his offer of employment.

*The definition of felony theft depends on the state and the amount stolen.

Tip for employers: Ask new hires to change their LinkedIn page immediately to reflect publicly to the industry that they are now employed by your company.