For many, a layoff is a catastrophic blow to both the wallet and psyche. But for one European tech worker, getting fired twice in five months was little more than an inconvenience. The secret? Unintentionally diving headfirst into a risky personal finance strategy: overemployment.
In a Reddit post titled "After 5 months of [overemployment], I aint goin back" that netted over two thousand upvotes in the r/overemployment community, the professional detailed how stacking multiple remote jobs transformed their financial anxiety into a solid sense of security.
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An Unplanned Parachute (Or Two)
The poster's journey into overemployment wasn't born from ambitions of wealth, but partially from prudence and partially luck. Last year, their longtime employer, J1, as they wrote, began selling off parts of its business and conducting layoffs. Seeing the writing on the wall, the post's author started "mass applying for other jobs" in February as a fallback.
He secured a new role – J2 – in March but, in a twist of fate, wasn't laid off from the first job as expected. “So I decided I’d start J2 in April and wait for J1 to lay me off and collect severance,” they wrote. “This wasn't planned – just a lucky coincidence.” A second unexpected offer in May led to a third job. And just like that, the three full-time simultaneous roles were secured.
However the story is ultimately less of a triumphant triple income flex and more akin to a blueprint for surviving corporate volatility. Why? Because the first job did in fact lay the author off at the end of July. A few months later, they received an ominous late-evening meeting invite from the manager at the second job. “I got on the call today and surprise, surprise – they’re having budget cuts and will lay me off at the end of October,” the author wrote.
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The Real Payoff Isn't Just Cash
While the “extra money is amazing,” the writer was quick to highlight the bigger payoff: peace of mind. The emotional toll of a sudden job loss is often worse than the financial one. But for them, the second layoff was merely a “bummed out” moment, not a panic-inducing crisis.
“The way these companies treat people and the fact you could be laid off at any moment is disgusting,” they wrote. “Not having a backup already in place can be soul-crushing… If I didn’t have J2, I’d be panicking and taking this much more to heart. Now… at least I have J2 and it’s extra motivation to start applying again.”
The argument that stockpiling fulltime income streams is the only logical response to lack of corporate loyalty didn’t sit well with everyone though, and the post, like most on the topic, sparked intense debate. One frustrated commenter blamed the practice of overemployment for their own job search struggles: “It's like hoarding food in a famine.”
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The original poster responded at length, defending their position based on the realities of the job market. They argued that employers, not employees, are the ultimate decision-makers. If a company chooses a candidate with multiple jobs over an unemployed one, it's because they presented the better fit based on the available information. “There is no obligation or anything illegal” to disclose other employment, they wrote, comparing it to not volunteering other perceived weaknesses.
The poster also challenged the idea that divided attention inherently means worse performance, drawing from their own experience: “I’ve had jobs where they were my only job and I’ve put much much less effort… than when now I have stacked jobs and I’m really trying to keep them together.”
The poster's core advice for the frustrated job seeker? Redirect your anger. “Hate the game not the players… your mindset also won’t do you any favors, in fact people with multiple jobs likely are not the reason you cant get one.”
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Image: Midjourney
