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Fake job seekers are flooding US companies that are hiring for remote positions

(www.cnbc.com)
182 points arizen | 4 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.484s | source
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specialp ◴[09 Apr 25 13:31 UTC] No.43631863[source]▶
Another remote employment fraud that is much more prevalent is "Overemployment". You will get an applicant that is very skilled and hits the interview out of the park. But then when hired they are working many jobs and just trying to steal as many paychecks as they can until you fire them. They keep their first jobs resume clean and they all check out.

There is a Reddit community with over 400k members to show how prevalent this is [1]. There's lots of tactics like not allowing mentions on LinkedIn so they can't be publicly mentioned and seen by other unsuspecting employers, and just maintaining plausible deniability about why they can't make an on camera meeting. It is technically not illegal so it is very lucrative and hard to detect.

https://www.reddit.com/r/overemployed/top/

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ryandrake ◴[09 Apr 25 14:20 UTC] No.43632465[source]▶
Funny how you can be a CEO of 4 companies and nobody bats an eye. You can be a retail worker holding down 3 minimum wage jobs to make ends meet and they say you are a hard worker, busting your ass for your family. But if you’re a white collar knowledge worker juggling two jobs, and still meeting both jobs’ expected performance goals, they call you a fraud and a thief and if you are open about it, they will fire you.
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specialp ◴[09 Apr 25 14:33 UTC] No.43632618[source]▶
It is a LOT different to be working multiple jobs at different times of the day. This is not what this is. This is trying to get away with working 2 or more jobs at the same time and making up excuses about why you can't make an on camera meeting. Also in the case of CEOs it is known they are doing that. If someone said yeah I have another job I will be working the same hours as your job that is totally fair. But they don't say that. They say their pipes froze, doctor's appointment, etc. It is also fair that the worker can do what they would like in their time including working another job. I have also had people who honestly said they were wrapping up their consulting gig and would need some time periodically to take off and that was fine too.
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1. ryandrake ◴[09 Apr 25 14:40 UTC] No.43632674[source]▶
> If someone said yeah I have another job I will be working the same hours as your job that is totally fair.

Close to zero companies would accept this, even if your performance met standards and you did it in such a way you didn't miss a single meeting. That's why I said if you are open about it they will fire [or not hire] you. It's a double standard.

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2. dingnuts ◴[09 Apr 25 16:51 UTC] No.43634342[source]▶
yeah, if you're salaried big corps expect to own you. you generally sign away all your creative rights to side projects when you take the offer, and you usually agree not to take other jobs, too.
3. bluGill ◴[09 Apr 25 20:51 UTC] No.43637813[source]▶
I could work two different retail jobs in a day if the schedules work out. I cannot work 40 hours a week as an engineer, much less take on a second job (fortunately I can always find a few mindless meetings to make up my job). So long as I'm expected to work 40 hour weeks my company is justified in asking me not work a second job in my field as I couldn't anyway.

Now I could go out and get a retail job for after my regular job.

4. const_cast ◴[10 Apr 25 00:09 UTC] No.43639335[source]▶
This is because companies are stupid and lazy when it comes to measuring performance.

There is only one used method of performance measurement: time spent. Every company who CLAIMS to be "data-driven" or "gamifies the system" are lying through their teeth. They're like every other company, they measure performance by hours spent.

I've seen many engineers easily hitting double the number of tickets closed as others. They don't work 20 hours a week. If they did, they would be fired within days.

This is why over-employment is "cheating". Employers don't actually care about your performance, they care about how much you're paying. If you're paying less to them, even if their end of the deal is sweet, they feel cheated. They, like most Americans, value perceived fairness over actual outcomes. They have no issue shooting themselves, or you, in the foot if this looks to be more fair.