The following is a guest post series from Guild member elhapo#8226 with some light edits. Catch up on week 1 and week 2 if you missed it. You can reach them on the Overemployed.com Discord.
Day 11, Monday – Why Can’t The Weekend Be Longer?
The weekend ends with me wanting one more day off. I did finally come up with a goal, an exit strategy, which should at least help me figure out why I’m being Overemployed. I don’t know that I’ll ever start one job after another again because that was really stressful. But two jobs? Two jobs would be easy for me. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to just doing one job. But please don’t compare yourself to me. I still don’t think everyone can do Overemployed, and that’s not a bad thing.
I’m dreading work today after planning and preparing all weekend. Except nothing happens today. It feels like a gifted day. Maybe everyone is busy? I have only one short meeting all day and that was it. Not a whole lot of work. I’m simply amazed at how little there was going on. Was onboarding the worst part of Overemployed?
Seriously, J2 and J3 I just do what I would normally do at any job and they end unceremoniously. I didn’t count down the minutes till the end of the day. I actually started to schedule breaks, go for walks, and pretty much have a normal day.
I did notice in my panic buying I bought something that doesn’t help me in the slightest. I bought a hub instead of a KVM switch. Wow. I simply go over to the Overemployed website where they were recommending hardware, look for a cheaper 1xmonitor/USB device and get that. I think I need at least one switching monitor.
Oh yeah, I got paid again. I’m not exactly excited about it because it’s Monday but it feels super nice. It just hasn’t all sunk in yet. I just pay a bunch of bills off early and save the rest. Right now I’m sitting at 1/10th of my goal to FI.
Day 12, Tuesday – Sweet And Fluffy Culture
Ok seriously, I must be in some sort of sweet spot here. Fun day, I learned some stuff about each job, nothing too crazy. Now just waiting for the hammer to drop on my head. Wondering when the workload is going to become nuts. KVM swtich still didn’t come today. I did end up getting a 4-into-1 KVM switch but I’m wondering if I’m even going to bother using the tiny laptop one of the Js sent me. I could just blame not getting things done faster on this laptop that sweats when I open a browser.
One thing that did change today is I stopped prioritizing amongst the Js. J1 is now taking up the most meetings and they seem to want to increase that daily. J2 and J3 so far have zero interactive meetings. I know this will change but just thought it was funny how things flipped around the past two days. I’m sure things will flip again.
J3 does have some “fluff” meetings. I’m using the word “fluff” to recognize those meetings that upper management loves to call because they need a time killer meeting for everyone to feel engaged. I just use this time to get work done for my other Js with zero distractions. Just have to remember to set an alarm to signal the end. I really enjoyed that today as I had overlapping meetings and I just went to both with no worries about the risk at all. If anything, I got to know the management of J3 better today. They keep showing up. I wonder if this is what upper management does with most of their time. The meetings are really well run, it feels like I’m watching a bunch of meeting experts. I think I know the answer to my own question, but I still feel like someone just looking into a fishbowl for the first time.
The best thing is that I’m starting to stop caring about what all the jobs think. The biggest thing is meetings, and I’m just going to do my best to go to all of them. Besides that, I’m going to continue doing good work for everyone. I’ve gotten zero complaints and even a few compliments so far. So go me. I don’t see people trying to chat with me, I’ve missed a few emails that I should have responded to earlier. Well…that’s pretty much what happened on every job I had before these 3 Js. Nobody cares though because I just follow up later and get things sorted like I always do. Today felt very normal.
Day 13 & 14, Wednesday & Thursday – Cross Training My Brain
Not as much to report over the past two days. Things are humming. I did find out one of my daily meetings is now a couple of hours apart from my other daily meetings. I almost jumped up for joy with excitement. I finally got the KVM switch set up. Then I found out my monitor already had one built into it this entire time. Whoops!
At J2 there’s still nothing happening at the moment. I sometimes wonder if they forgot I work there. The best thing so far is I’m overachieving at all the jobs. I could have got another week out of J3 but I screwed up and told them I was already done with most of the work they gave me. I can’t believe I’m overachieving at this rate – but screw it, I’m loving it so far.
The only thing that’s up in the air right now is J2. Nothing much is happening but I just wonder if there’s going to be a deluge of work coming and I’ll just have to pull the plug and quit. Time will tell. I keep thinking this is going to end at any moment but then things keep chugging along.
The other interesting thing I’ve noticed is that all these different positions are actually making me a better employee for all of them. I’m able to see multiple professional ways to do things now, and I’m combining the best practices from each of the jobs to deliver better work for all. Who in the heck knew that was going to happen? Professional development cross-training anyone?
Sidebar from Isaac: I could’ve told you that! We’re just scratching the surface on the positive side effects of being Overemployed. Beyond just the financial reward, this is upskilling on crack.
Day 15, Friday – No More In
J4 just let me know there was some sort of snafu with the hiring process, and they “accidentally” extended the job offer to someone else. Ok then. That’s a new one. What a joke. Have you ever been interviewed where you hit a grand slam and the interviewer was super impressed? He couldn’t wait to have me start, and then this happens. Something like this would have been crushing in the past but it doesn’t bother me all that much. I got too much crap going on and I’m getting paid. Jokes are on them. It still leaves a mark on my psyche, but what strange times we live in.
Today was a nice day. I got some fun work done, no one wants to have a meeting on Friday which suits me just fine. With no more paperwork or onboarding stuff, there’s still not a ton to do even if I just had one job. I’m just amazed at how this is working out so far. I’m just waiting for a deluge of work though as the new jobs are just slowly rolling me into their workflows. J3’s and J1’s meeting schedules work just fine. J2 just has random chats that I respond to.
I came up with a goal for myself. I figured if I try really hard, and four months in I’d have earned a year’s worth of wages. I could just take the rest of the year off. How crazy would that be? I’m hoping I can keep this up, but so far this is cake. I’m feeling super lucky. I just soak it all in since I feel this is temporary and it’ll end. Weekend time!
Thoughts Over The Weekend
I feel like my weekends have to be more epic or something now. I don’t know why. I also don’t like to think about work at all on the weekends so I decided to avoid the computer – a new habit for me. My weekend is pretty normal. I just need to cherish it more. I don’t have any anxiety about work anymore. If the Overemployed angst was going to keep happening week after week, I would have nuked everything because it wasn’t sustainable.
Nothing in my life has really changed. I bought an expensive keyboard. I see more comparisons from people online and I just don’t get it. Different jobs, different locations, different people with different lives, goals, and ambitions. There’s a reason why I’m not sharing how much I get paid. It doesn’t matter. Be Overemployed to serve your own needs. It isn’t easy by any means, but if you work your butt off and prepare for it then yes life will get easier. It’s like playing the game of life with cheat codes.