Some white-collar workers secretly balance 2 full-time jobs and earn up to $ 600,000, according to a report. They come in and out of several meetings to avoid getting caught.

• Some white-collar workers secretly hold two remote full-time jobs at the same time.

• It can be difficult to balance two jobs, but some earn more than $ 200,000, they told the WSJ.

• They go in and out of meetings, or avoid them altogether, to make sure they don’t get caught, they said.

• See more stories on the Insider business page.

Some white-collar workers take advantage of remote work by having two full-time jobs – without telling either employer.

The Wall Street Journal spoke to six workers who held multiple full-time jobs. They told the post it was a tough balancing act, but worth it for the double pay. Most made between $ 200,000 and almost $ 600,000, The Journal reported.

The Journal verified workers’ claims by examining letters of offer, employment contracts, pay stubs and company emails.

Workers said they used the extra money to pay off student loan debt, top up their children’s college savings accounts and purchase luxury items ranging from an engagement ring to a car sport.

Read more: Employers Must Rethink Wage Negotiations Now

Labor attorneys told the Journal that holding two jobs at a time does not violate federal or state laws, but it can break employment contracts and cause people to be fired.

“I wake up in the morning and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is the day I’m going to be discovered,'” a software engineer told the Journal.

Many workers said they had strategies to work around difficult situations and did not work more than 40 hours per week between jobs.

A data scientist from Richmond, Va., Told the Journal he was teaching an online coding course at his second job when his first boss requested a video call.

He told his students to take a short break and used his other computer to join the call, he said.

Another worker told the Journal that he regularly attended two meetings at a time, joining one on his computer and the other on his phone. If asked to speak at both meetings at the same time, he would answer questions on one call and drop the other, before joining in and saying he was having problems with his internet.

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And whenever possible, he tried to avoid meetings altogether by telling his colleagues he could help them on Slack instead, he said.

“Let’s be honest. You have to be smart enough to get caught,” he said.

The Overemployed website, which focuses on the benefits of keeping two jobs, offers workers tips on how to do it, such as being visible in meetings and carefully monitoring what they post on LinkedIn.

One of its co-founders said he started applying for a second job last year because he expected to be laid off from his job at a San Francisco Bay Area tech company.

He received an offer for a job at another nearby tech company and planned to quit his original job, but decided not to.

In his first job, he started delegating some responsibilities to a new colleague and even took an entire month off using the company’s unlimited paid time off, citing the burnout linked to COVID-19, a- he told the Journal.

The practice existed before COVID-19.

A software engineer in Europe told the Journal he took on a second job, a contract assignment, in 2018, telling his employers he was taking a cybersecurity course in London. He said he spent several months in the city and was earning an additional $ 350 per day. He has since changed his second job, he said.

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