A lot of full time jobs are not full time work. I have a friend who completed a masters degree, full time, all while working full time. If you do things correctly, a full time job can not even involve doing any real work in a given day.
He was a data analyst who was tasked with this daily report. He automated it and hid the automation, so for two years he did pretty much nothing until his degree was finished.
I have two full time (albeit remote) jobs and two part time admin/data processing jobs. ChatGPT and Copilot let me do far more work in the same amount of time but officially are not permitted, so I just sit on the work for days to ensure that I only produce at the same rate as everyone else. The two admin/data processing jobs are also nearly fully automated. I introduce random defects to the work product to keep expectations from rising.
I work fewer than 25 hours a week net now. Leaves lots of time for reading.
Figure out how to improve your productivity, but make sure your employer doesn't benefit from it. You can keep that improvement for yourself.
1. If he got caught, he wasn't doing it correctly. I don't get negative feedback. I just know to avoid getting praise. I strive to be a reliable and hard to notice drone.
2. Would he consider his time there miserable? He probably made off with tens of thousands he would not otherwise have.
It's impressive you are managing to hold that many jobs at once and still work so little, well done! At my current job of 2 years (I have just the one), I am being worked to the bone and my health is suffering. I consider myself very productive and think that employers tend to exploit that.
I like the sound of working multiple jobs with reasonably low responsibility, e.g. admin/data processing type jobs that are easily automatible. I'd like to give this a shot to see if it makes me happier in life.
Do you have any tips you could share please on 1) how to find these jobs, and 2) how to juggle simultaneous jobs without your employers caring or finding out?
1. Just scroll through all remote jobs and see what you can find that seems like automation should be able to handle. I literally review some 500 job postings a day to find opportunities like that. What can be automated is going to be based on your own capabilities and experiences. Ideally, it is something in which you have a bit of domain expertise.
2. Do your work. Deliver your work. But not too well. Be a bit unreliable. Never go the extra mile. Be the person who seems disinterested or disengaged. Ace your main goals, but fail your stretch goals. I want to be the person they trust enough to give work regularly to, but someone who they see no future potential in. The reliable cog in the machine unfit for any other purpose. Find ways to do things better, but don't share them. That is how you get your time back. Someone who does their work but is otherwise nothing special gets no attention.
He was a data analyst who was tasked with this daily report. He automated it and hid the automation, so for two years he did pretty much nothing until his degree was finished.
I have two full time (albeit remote) jobs and two part time admin/data processing jobs. ChatGPT and Copilot let me do far more work in the same amount of time but officially are not permitted, so I just sit on the work for days to ensure that I only produce at the same rate as everyone else. The two admin/data processing jobs are also nearly fully automated. I introduce random defects to the work product to keep expectations from rising.
I work fewer than 25 hours a week net now. Leaves lots of time for reading.
Figure out how to improve your productivity, but make sure your employer doesn't benefit from it. You can keep that improvement for yourself.