My Colleague Worked a Second Job. In the Office. Every Day

Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash

These days I think everyone has multiple gigs going at once. Working from home since the pandemic has opened the floodgates in terms of being able to maximize your time and earning potential.

“If you don’t really like your job why not take a second job? Since you work a 100% remote job nobody knows what you’re really doing with your time.

That’s what mediocre developers think rather than giving their all and actually earning their salary. Go Figure.

This is a story better than that though. This is a story where a developer has my respect because they didn’t (and don’t) feel shame for their behavior.”

Working Two Jobs In The Office

“I didn’t feel much respect for my colleague. Until I realized he was doing this on company time. Here’s what happened.

I was a pretty junior employee and went to this colleague to ask for some guidance. My colleague sat on the other side of the office so I’d take a walk over to him so we could work on an issue. 

He wasn’t free, and I could just hear his side of the conversation (in Arabic at that). This conversation actually went on the most of the afternoon and as it worked out I needed to leave my query to the next day. 

That’s when he shared with me how he earned extra money. He said he had his own business coaching junior developers and would give them 1-to-1 time to improve their code. As I’d already seen he did this second job on company time. He shared with me that he only kept the job at our company to continue working in the Asian country, we both lived in at the time.”

Team Impact

“I don’t usually care what work you do outside standard hours. However, as you’ve seen in the story above this one impacted me personally as it limited my contact with a more senior developer. 

I guess it goes without saying that his work was often late and rushed. 

The company I worked for underpaid staff and you’d have to put in some very poor shifts to be fired. He is the first colleague I’ve ever worked with who missed standup each day without fail. 

To think I feel like I don’t care about my position. I’ve nothing on this guy. 

The result was, it didn’t take me long to leave (The Secret Developer does not want to work in a team where nobody cares about the product) and quickly the team disbanded. Not too much of a surprise I guess, but a shame for the company I feel.”

Conclusion

“I think the solution is to employ staff who actually care about their jobs. Do that by getting the interview process right, big tech. Just at least stop making these mistakes”