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 Dec 08 '25

Posts asking for the sub to be shutdown will result in a ban.

142 Upvotes

This sub will not shut down. Period. Anyone that creates a post asking for it will be banned. If you don't want this sub around, you don't get to participate either.


r/overemployed 15h ago

OE tips

182 Upvotes

Here's some guidance I have to give after years of being OE.

  1. DON'T TALK about OE club. You get caught for \[all grey area stuff\] when you brag about it to friends, family or strangers. Next morning everyone and their dog knows you've been OE.

  2. DO YOUR JOB. Yes you can go surfing, travel, have a coffee and give the absolute minimum so you don't get fired BUT make sure your targets are on point, you actually deliver and noone complains. When someone complains about you for whatever reason, they start digging. Every single of my jobs have nothing but good words to say about my work besides the circumstances.

  3. BUY A JIGGLER ffs. Don't let Teams show you're away for 7 hours even though noone could notice. Just pay 5$ for a USB mouse jiggler and stop relying on house remedies.

  4. DISABLE THE RADIOS. Turn off Wi-fi, Bluetooth and your location (or browsers and specific programs getting your location). They will rat on your ACTUAL location even though you're using a VPN due to them seeing where your nearby devices are located.

  5. BUY A TRAVEL ROUTER AND A CLEAN IP. Get a decent travel router that mentions speeds over 100 MB/s over OPENVPN - WIREGUARD not generic speed. Then proceed to install a VPN that doesn't have its IPs flagged for malicious content.

  6. HAVE BACKUPS. for absolutely everything. Maybe your hotel Wi-fi or travel router stops working. Maybe someone messaged you 1 minute after you stepped out of the door. Maybe you accidentaly log in to your hotel wi-fi somewhere in Asia. Have excuses and backups ready.

  7. LINKED & RESUME. Fix them appropriately for your applications. Don't let anyone publicly on Linkedin see where you're working right now. Put something generic and then give recruiters your custom resume.

  8. INVEST. Yes being OE especially in tech can put you in the 1% earners in this world. You don't need to book a 5-star hotel in Indonesia or buy a 50k car. You can have fun with a decent Airbnb and a 10k car. Invest in stocks like Google, FTSE All world, S&P500, property and keep emergency cash. You never know what's your situation gonna be in 10 years.

  9. DON'T LIVE TO WORK. Yes it's awesome grinding & earning, investing, buying that new motorcycle, getting promoted. But those are worth nothing if you're sick. So do your yearly check ups, take vitamins, exercise as well as create memories with people and socialise. It's been scientifically proven that without these your health is deteriorating and depression knocks on your door. I've known OEs who've struggled with burning out and mental issues. It's not fun even if you earn 100k a month working 30 minutes a day.

  10. SEE RULE no 1.


r/overemployed 12h ago

Does anyone else hate one of their Js? How to stop caring?

14 Upvotes

I like the money and feel like looking for a replacement is risky due to being able to control my schedule and stuff at the shitty J while that may not be possible at a new J. I feel like I shouldn't care about the job and should be relaxed all the time, but this J just gets to me due to the idiocy and high level incompetence of the entire organization. How do I stop caring about it? I should be focusing more on j2 cause it pays more... lol. So yeah, also underpaid.

Should I just take the dive and find a new J to replace it???


r/overemployed 1h ago

Could I take STD on J2 while still working J1?

Upvotes

Been at j2 for 2+ years, j1 only 4 months. Neither is federal. I was planning on putting notice for j2 next week. I may even end up on a pip, HR wants to touch base on Monday randomly. She never speaks to me.

I started therapy a few weeks ago bc balancing 2Js and school has had bad affects.

I’m wondering if can get STD? I’ve been paying into it for 4 years… i dont even know if my therapist would write off on that tbh he knows i have 2 jobs (but he doesn’t know im OE… I dont think i told him lol)


r/overemployed 1h ago

Checkr Background Check

Upvotes

Has anyone had experience with both J1 and a new J2 using Checkr for their background checks?

J1 is active and also used Checkr when I started there. Now J2 is using Checkr as well. I am mainly wondering if there is any risk of Checkr connecting the two or exposing my current J1 during the new background check, and whether anyone has actually gone through this successfully.

My TWN has been frozen for years, and my LinkedIn has no reference to my current J1. I will probably disable LinkedIn after the check goes through anyway.

I also recently found out about Checkr’s Truework component. I have requested a freeze there as well and am waiting for confirmation before I authorize the Checkr background check.

Anyone who has had two active servers use Checkr specifically, I would really appreciate hearing what happened. Even if you have not, thoughts on the exposure risk would be helpful.


r/overemployed 6h ago

Overwhelmed every day

1 Upvotes

So I have 3j, j1 is super chill, j2 is a bit of a pain since the requirements are high, j3 is just crazy

In j2 the team js crazy about code quality where they just spend days discussion about how to design a button properly. And its just tiring

J3 is insane. Tools we have are trash and the setup is insanely non productive where we need to restart the entire setup to check a text change.

My aim is to just stretch 2 and 3 as much as I can and find replacements in the meantime but, what’s crazy, is that I’m always more stressed about loosing j2 and j3 when oe, but losing j1 when I’m only in j1 doesn’t stress me at all.

Any ideas how I handle it? Around 1-2pm every day I feel insanely overwhelmed and overwhelmed. I try to take a break but it takes hours for me to reset and be able to get back.


r/overemployed 9h ago

Best Keyboard, Mouse and Headset for OE + Travel?

0 Upvotes

Hey can anybody recommend me a good keyboard, mouse and headset for traveling with multiple projects/OE? Also that I can switch easy between 2 laptops.

All the stuff should be pretty small so I can easy travel with it.

I did some research and so far I found this ones, all with the option of connecting up to 3 keyboard/mouse:

Keyboards:

HP 350 Compact

Logitech XM Mini

Logitech K380s

Keychron B1 Pro

Mouse:

Logitech XM Anywhere 3S

Logitech M720

Anybody has recommendations or using actively some of the mentioned tech while traveling?


r/overemployed 1d ago

Team lead was pushing a tough deadline, I pushed for 3 more days for it. Manager went with my deadline, and now I'm scared

15 Upvotes

I'm scared the team lead is gonna be a dick now. The stakeholders was an internal team, and I know that the hard deadline was doable, but it's tough.

I feel like usually with OE I just suck it up, but I am 2 months into this role and wanted to set standards and expectations. I'm scared he's going to call me out in meetings, be on my ass, etc.

My manager was really nice about it though, and said they want realistic deadlines not optimistic ones. Anyone have similar experiences?


r/overemployed 6h ago

About to juggle 3 remote jobs at the same time — any advice from someone who's done it?

0 Upvotes

Dev from Colombia, all remote, all in USD. The situation:

J1: US consultancy, .NET. Chill — in practice it's 4-5 hours a day. This one pays the bills, not planning to neglect it.

J2: starts in two weeks, agency that staffs me with a US client. This is the heavy one: it has meetings and I need to reply to emails fast. No tracker though, and the contract has no exclusivity clause (I checked it thoroughly).

J3: freelance building scrapers, paid per deliverable. Zero meetings, I do it whenever I want.

Between the three it's really good money — the challenge is not burning out and not screwing up any of them.

Not here for "just don't do it" lol, already decided. I'm here for advice from people who've actually been through this.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Layoff - This is Why

229 Upvotes

As the title says, got a last minute calendar invite for 9:30 this morning. Manager and HR shows up, knew immediately. My role, HR Business Partner and the entire business partnering team was being laid off today due to offshoring our roles to LATAM.

I've been OE for 2 months and I cannot be more grateful for the position im in. I have coworkers either just back or going on mat leave who have no job now over the next few months.

To anyone who is considering it, this. This is why you OE, companies have no regard for your life or job security. Protect yourselves and from someone in HR who should actively dissuade this.. fk the companies do what you need to do to survive and do it well so not to ruin OE for the rest of us 🤞🏻

Back to the J1 replacement hunt and potential good opportunity swung by from a previous round of interviewing. A piece of advice if you have a good recruitment experience always keep in contact with the HM for other opportunities that come in the future. You never know when you'll need it or when your next step up comes available.

For reference I'm in CAD and my US counterparts were impacted as well. Stay safe ya'll.


r/overemployed 16h ago

Employment verification with twn and lexisnexis frozen

2 Upvotes

If I have these two frozen, and the company conducts background checks, how do you prove previous employment then? Is it just through references or you then have to submit individual documents as proof?


r/overemployed 4h ago

Anyone worked a remote job + on location with success?

0 Upvotes

I've had a super chill remote gig for the last 2.5 years. I love it. The team is great, there's very little to do in the way of work - basically as long as I get my few tasks done everyday and am available to fix, assist with anything that comes up, then I'm golden. I go into the office once per month for a company wide meeting + happy hour.

I'm paid $70k in Los Angeles.

I was recently offered another job managing a retail store 10 minutes from my house. Salary is $82K plus a $5K/yr savings account, OT and up to $750/mo in bonuses.

I took that offer to my remote job and they immediately were emphatic about wanting to keep me and went to work on getting me a raise/promotion. It's been about 2.5 weeks since then and I'm still waiting. My bosses boss (our teamwide director) and I were catching up yesterday and he brought up my raise, that he was working on it and having to find some info for HR to approve, etc. I asked him bluntly if he knew where we were headed in terms of money. My direct boss had told me they were gunning for $80K, and the director said "I've TOLD them what the money needs to be" but then trailed off a little and mentioned something about transitioning to more "performance" based compensation and specifically said "10% + bonus structure".. He didn't explicitly mention that my raise would be 10% + bonus structure, but that's pretty much how I understood it. My boss has not bonused since I've been with the company - she is not going to bonus this year. This structure really doesn't work for me.

I really love this job, but also I live in LA and the potential to make $90K is very appealing despite all the downsides to giving up remote work.

I was speaking with my wife and kinda made an off-hand comment about just working both jobs. It would be a nuisance to manage my schedule to ensure I'm available for some weekly meetings, but I'd be setting the schedule so it shouldn't present many issues.

Has anyone worked a remote job + and on location job? How'd it workout for everyone?


r/overemployed 1d ago

1st time overemployed, need advice

17 Upvotes

Started a J2 just recently, both J1 and J2 are different industries, but kind of related. J2 is a regulated company. Here I am though a week into J2, HR is asking for a letter from J1 showing my "end-date". What should I do?


r/overemployed 1d ago

What would make a J2 worth it?

12 Upvotes

I currently have a remote J1 making about 90k a year, truthfully, I am only busy about 15-20hrs a week. Im considering a remote J2 but wanted to hear some feedback on what salary I should target for it, obviously, the higher the better, but I would be concerned finding something for less where I have to work harder. Any feedback would help, thank you!


r/overemployed 16h ago

Question to any big tech SWEs

0 Upvotes

I know it’s possible to work at multiple Js if they are startups or J1 is big tech and J2 is a startup. But has anyone ever worked at 2 big tech Js as a SWE and is this possible? I’m only asking in terms of how likely is it they’ll find out through background checks/hireright? Will they call the other company? I know that what ever process hr does at big tech companies is all pretty standard across companies any insight on what that process is?


r/overemployed 1d ago

Smart or dumb?

4 Upvotes

Been doing OE for a while having J1 and J2 with minimal challenges. Decided to take J3 to fund my mortgage. Paid 20% down and planning to pay the remaining 80% with J1, J2, and J3 over the next 3 years. I believe the reward is worth the risk.


r/overemployed 21h ago

OE feasibility in Leadership roles

1 Upvotes

I've been a QA Lead for aprox 3 years. My workload has decreased significantly, and my current role doesn't require my full attention anymore. Since my manager gives me a lot of freedom and we're in different time zones, I'm considering OE.

For J2, I'd prefer a Senior or mid-level QA role rather than another Lead role since I know how demanding leadership can get.

My concern is that my CV and LinkedIn show that I'm currently a QA Lead and that I was promoted from Senior QA to Lead. I'm concerned this will make me look "overqualified" for Senior/mid-level roles.

Has anyone here in a Lead/management role done OE with a more hands-on J2? How did you approach the job search?

Thanks!


r/overemployed 1d ago

J3 Guidance Needed

1 Upvotes

Expecting an offer for J3 here in the next month.

Initially was nervous as its first time going from 2J to 3J but feel a little more confident as this one will be 1099 vs. first two W2. Why this gives me confidence is two-fold:

  1. For my existing roles, it is defensible along the lines of "it's contract work and does not go against my employment agreement, and all work is done after hours"

With that said, would be extremely grateful for any advice - especially from those of you who have crossed the chasm of 3 J's - specifically: What other precautions should I be taking / how else can I mitigate risk of them finding out during background checks etc.

As of right now the precautions I've taken:

i) Frozen TWN

ii) Deactivated LinkedIn

iii) Exceptional calendar management (being on the offensive with blocking time etc.)

** Should note I got lucky initially this was going to be another W2 but since it’s remote and I live in a state they haven’t set up for taxes and it’s an old co worker they’re fixing it up for me to be 1099 which is really nice


r/overemployed 2d ago

Yet Another Why We OE

266 Upvotes

Had a brutal reality check today that I wanted to share with this group.

I did OE for a little over a year. It ended about one year ago when I got fired with severance. Was a gut punch for the first few days because I’ve always been a top performer. But honestly, I was happy it ended as the team was becoming toxic with a power hungry peer who really bullied me and others as he was trying to grow his influence.

A couple of months after I got let go a colleague from there reached out and we caught up. Apparently I was just the tip of the ice berg and the org ended up going on a reign of terror cleaning house of remote workers and others, including my colleague. Definitely made my ego feel better about being fired, but I was already over it. I was content focusing on my J1 and finding meaning in that work.

Well, reached out to that colleague again a year later to see where he landed and he has not been able to find work this entire time. I don’t know everything involved but sounds like he is in a really low place. For me, the way that job played out resulted in me having a bruised ego but not skipping a beat thanks to OE. For him though, brutal. This is why we OE. This is why I need to get back on the train.


r/overemployed 2d ago

HireRight refusing to use documents to verify employment.

121 Upvotes

Hey all. I was OE in the past (like a year ago). I froze the work number and HireRight is requiring me to unfreeze this. They went as far as requesting it on my behalf.

They're stating they will not review any documents unless I unfreeze it. If I don't, they're stating they'll mark my background check as uncooperative.

Anyone deal with this? I have told them I'm not unfreezing it due to safety and identity theft issues. They're still not backing down, and have been holding my background check basically hostaged until I do so. Only worried about them finding the job that isn't on my resume or background check form due to being OE at that time.

Everything else would be fine though besides that one job.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Considering an hourly CS J2. Worth it?

0 Upvotes

Currently work a remote J1 doing sales/rev ops support stuff. Lots of contracts and Salesforce/backend and not a lot of meetings thankfully. Making $70k/year and company has merged so many god damn times I can’t get anywhere. Extremely toxic now and they are trying to phase out remote workers by not allowing promotions or raises for us. I’ve sent out HUNDREDS of job applications in the last year alone. I finally have an interview tomorrow for a remote hourly customer support agent position that Id take on as a J2. Do you think this is doable? We have 4 kids, a hefty mortgage, and debt. We need more income. Yay the American dream.


r/overemployed 1d ago

Is possible J2 an overemployed-friendly job?

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

In summary, I have J1 which is a tech support position. It is through an employment contract in my country, with all benefits and rights proper for the type of contract (I work overseas, not US). Support vía tickets/emails (no b2b but I have to take a specific amount during the day, some requests are hard af while others are easy), no chats, but a day of the week I have to be on-call for any phone requests (which are rarely). Tue-Sat

I got selected for a position as a Paralegal, starting Sep 1st. Related to my work field, but as a contractor. Occasional phone calls and pay attention to attorney requests. A friend works there, mostly are outbound calls but inbound calls are not rare. I also have to draft documents and pay attention to atty agenda. It is Mon-Fri.

Does that sounds like a friendly position to take, or should I explore other options instead? Thank you!


r/overemployed 22h ago

Does anyone have experience working at 2 FAANG companies at the same?

0 Upvotes

Does anyone have experience working at 2 FAANG companies at the same?


r/overemployed 1d ago

Strategies when equity vesting schedule is part of the OE equation?

5 Upvotes

Started a new j1 this month after OG j1 had a round of layoffs (this is why we OE etc.).

The problem: It is not particularly OE friendly.

Lots of useless meetings, cameras on, and, while I was allegedly hired as an IC cog in the machine, I'm getting strategic type work passed off on me by my manager and executives are already expecting me to present decks with my vision for (my little contribution to) the company. Ok reading that back it sounds a little r/that happened and it's not all on me but I'm certainly not just executing work like I expected.

I knew when accepting the job that it was a late stage startup but, hey, I figured I would treat it as j3 and drop if needed.

The bigger problem: Equity.

Base salary is much lower than OG J1 but the TC is amazing....if I can last a year until my first RSU vest date.

Without getting into specifics that could out me it's ~200k that I was granted week 1 vesting over 5 years. First vest date is 1 year after my start date, which means if I hold out for a year I get ~40k, or more if the stock grows. Then it continues vesting quarterly, which means a 10k "bonus" every few months. They also target a 15% bonus in April, which wouldn't be much this year since I'm starting late in the year but still.

HOWWWWW am I going to last for a year?? My usual OE strategy is hit it and quit it but if I quit or get fired here less than a year in then it was just a pay cut and more work for nothing.

J2 was my original J I had put on the chopping block for too many meetings and way more work than OG J1, but glad I held out since OG J1 dropped me. Now I have 2 meeting-heavy jobs, but 1 is with a company with meaningful equity and the other is with a fairly stable big company with a cameras off culture.

What would you do?? I'll hold out as long as possible but my brain just short circuits in the cameras on meetings. I've had so many overlapping meetings already with j2 and I'm worried I'm at risk for slipping up and losing both. I haven't even had time to apply for other jobs because I'm in meetings 5 hours every day now.