That's Interesting: Criminal or Genius?
Sep 09, 2023
If bills, credit card and mortgage payments are on your mind, then listen up.
Because there is a growing number of people (you could be working alongside one right now) taking matters into their own hands and filling their bank accounts with wads of cash.
Is what they’re doing criminal, or genius?
Last month my friend was working with a guy on a big project in the banking sector. Not a bad guy but not really a team player either.
He was late to meetings. Didn’t overly contribute and wouldn’t often know what was being discussed.
Oh, and he was super hard to get a hold of.
Leading up to big deadlines he would say "yeah I have it sorted", " don't worry” or, “I'm almost done".
And just when the team thought he wasn’t going to deliver, he pulled off the impossible.
All would be forgiven. And the cycle would repeat. This went on for over 12 months.
But…in the end, red flags were raised and his performance was investigated.
Was what they found nothing short of… genius? Or criminal?
The guy was simultaneously working 4 x full time jobs!
4 x remote contractor jobs. 4 different businesses.
Mind. Blown.
And considering he was earning rates of $1,000 1,500 per day that meant he was being paid roughly $6,000 every day, or $1.5m per year (if he held onto those 4 jobs for the entire year)!
So, it had me wondering…how do I feel from a HR perspective? It kind of has my eye twitching thinking about how long this might have been going on for, and the possible conflicts of interest…
But then the pragmatist in me says “if he had delivered his work and the outcome he promised, go him!”
Plus, if he had better stakeholder engagement he may never have been found out. But seriously, is this guy for real?
In March 2023 the Australia Bureau of Statistics reported 63,800 multiple job-holders in the professional services sector.
I wonder how many of them are working 4 full time jobs?
But if they were, would it be..
…criminal or genius?
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