‘Polygamous working’, or secretly holding down more than one full-time job, may be on the rise, especially with remote or home-working employees becoming harder to monitor. For HR, it creates a whole gamut of headaches – legal, contractual, potentially criminal, and in terms of health, safety, and confidentiality, as Nic Paton reports.
The high-profile court case surrounding civil servant Kashim Chowdhury has thrown a spotlight on ‘polygamous working’, or the concept of employees secretly holding down multiple full-time jobs without any of their employers realising.
Chowdhury, 54, appeared last month at Southwark Crown Court accused of working full time, and simultaneously, for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Tower Hamlets Council.
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He was also charged with dishonesty over his employment history and lying about his employment. He denies all the charges and the case, at time of writing, was still continuing.
Nevertheless, Chowdhury’s case, it appears, is by no means a one-off. While the idea of a ‘side hustle’ alongside (or often after) the day job is not new, The Times newspaper reported that police and employers are increasingly being forced to crack down on staff who are ‘moonlighting’ in secret for more than one employer.
What’s more, the rise of arm’s-length hybrid and remote homeworking has made this more feasible as an option for employees, and harder for employers to police. The paper cited research from the National Fraud Initiative that had identified 23 cases among London boroughs and half a million pounds of overpaid salaries over a period of a few months.
It also highlighted the case of a social worker employed for the same hours at both Hampshire County Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council who was only caught because, while on an unmuted Teams video call with Hampshire staff, they were heard answering a call with the words: “Hi, you’re through to Southend Children’s Services.”
Social media influencers, too, are now numerous on sites such as TikTok sharing tips on how staff can pull the wool over the eyes of their bosses while earning multiple salaries by ‘over-working’, the paper noted.
Multiple, and overlapping, HR issues
So, how can HR navigate this emerging challenge? Qarrar Somji, employment law specialist at Witan Solicitors, highlights that polygamous working throws up a number of different, and overlapping, HR issues. These include contractual and potentially criminal concerns, concerns around health and safety, and concerns around confidentiality and data.
Employers should include clear terms that either require staff to declare a second job or ask for permission before taking one on.” – Qarrar Somji
“The best place to start is with the employment contract,” he advises. “Employers should include clear terms that either require staff to declare a second job or ask for permission before taking one on. This isn’t about stopping people from earning extra income – it’s about making sure employers are aware of the situation so they can manage any risks.
“Employers can also ask staff to sign an opt-out from the 48-hour working week limit if they’re taking on extra hours elsewhere. Open, honest conversations are key. If employees feel safe discussing second jobs, it’s much easier to stay on the right side of the law,” he adds.
To reduce the risk of conflicts or data breaches, employers should make it crystal clear that staff cannot work for competitors or use confidential information from one job in another. “This can be built into the contract and backed up through policies around data use, client confidentiality, and IT systems,” advises Somji.
“From a health and safety point of view, the biggest risk is exhaustion. Employers need to be confident that their staff are getting enough rest, especially in roles involving physical work or machinery.
“Making sure staff stick to legal rest breaks and working time limits is essential. It’s also a good idea to carry out a risk assessment when an employee changes their working hours and develop a company-wide policy that covers working hours, overtime, and shift-swapping,” he adds.
Risk of fraud and criminality
Laura Eshelby, head of economic crime at Clue Software, highlights that employers – and HR – need to be vigilant to the risks this type of deception poses in terms of criminality, especially the potential for fraud.
In a recent post on LinkedIn, for example, she emphasised the dangers of ‘insider’ threats to employers, pointing out that existing employees are responsible for 47% of reported fraud. Dual or polygamous working, by its very nature, is knowingly fraudulent to one or all of the employers that person is working for.
Employees may be driven into working polygamously by financial difficulties or a sense of grievance, perhaps because they feel they’re not being paid enough or their employer ‘can afford it’, she pointed out.
Then there is simply the lure of ‘the opportunity’, the fact that it is something that, apparently, you can get away with more easily these days, with perhaps little to no threat of sanction or comeback. As Eshelby put it: “An employee sees a chance and takes it. The opportunity often occurs due to lack of internal controls, access to financial systems where it’s not needed, or abuse of authority.”
Like Witan’s Somji, Joanna Dodd, legal director at Clarion Solicitors, emphasises that it is vital the exclusivity of any employee role is spelled out in the contract – and that this is clearly communicated to the employee.
When addressing suspected instances of polygamous working, employers should begin by reviewing existing contractual obligations regarding exclusivity and conflicts of interest.” – Joanna Dodd
“Many employment contracts contain exclusivity clauses that explicitly prohibit employees from taking on additional employment that could interfere with their primary role. When an employee engages in ‘polygamous working’, they typically breach these contractual obligations in several ways,” she points out.
“Firstly, by failing to disclose additional employment that may constitute a conflict of interest. Secondly, by misrepresenting their availability and capacity to fulfil contractual hours. And finally, by potentially sharing confidential information across organisations, whether deliberately or inadvertently.
“Even if there is no express clause, it is likely that holding another job down without the consent of your employer would breach the term of mutual trust and confidence, which is implied into all employment contracts (whether or not a written agreement is in place),” Dodd adds.
Such breaches would provide employers with grounds for disciplinary action and, in serious cases, dismissal, she advises. However, the challenge – especially where employees are working remotely – will lie in detection and gathering sufficient evidence to take action.
One of the difficulties here is that monitoring, tracking, checking or carrying out surveillance of remote workers is itself fraught with challenge, not least around GDPR, the risk of discrimination, and wider morale and employer/employee relationships issues, as this post-Covid blog highlighted.
“Employers should be alert to potential indicators of polygamous working,” says Dodd. “These might include unexplained drops in productivity or work quality and consistent unavailability for meetings or calls during standard working hours. Other warning signs often manifest as unusual patterns of online activity, such as extended periods of inactivity, reluctance to use video during calls or to attend in-person meetings, and vague explanations about daily activities or progress.
“When addressing suspected instances of polygamous working, employers should begin by reviewing existing contractual obligations regarding exclusivity and conflicts of interest. It’s also essential to gather objective evidence of performance or availability issues before proceeding with formal action. Conducting a full investigation to gather evidence should always precede any disciplinary steps,” Dodd advises.
Blurring of ‘traditional’ boundaries
Maybe however, as Sarunas Uzialo, country manager at YoungOnes argues, employers simply need to be more chill about all this. Maybe they need to recognise this is just another example of the increasing blurring of ‘traditional’ (for which read old-fashioned) work boundaries?
It’s not the act of working multiple jobs that creates problems, but the outdated systems that make people feel they need to hide it.” – Sarunas Uzialo
“The rise of polygamous working isn’t a fringe trend but instead highlights a fundamental shift in the way people view work. We’re seeing the demand for a new working model on our platform that is growing rapidly from 80,000 freelancers towards 200,000 this year. Rather than seeing it as a threat, organisations should recognise it as a response to economic realities,” he emphasises.
“The rise of gig work and side hustles reflects a growing desire for flexibility, autonomy, and the ability to design a working life that fits around personal priorities. Rather than hiding this trend, platforms that support freelance and contract work help bring it into the open, making it easier for individuals to take on multiple roles transparently and responsibly.
“It’s not the act of working multiple jobs that creates problems, but the outdated systems that make people feel they need to hide it. As the world of work evolves, we need employment frameworks that reflect how people want to live and work today,” Uzialo adds.
There is a point here, to an extent. Employers, and HR, do need to recognise the new realities and flexibilities of the post-pandemic workplace. As Clarion’s Dodd puts it: “While some may see implementing return-to-office mandates as a solution to address concerns around polygamous working, a more nuanced approach would involve balancing remote flexibility with clear expectations, regular check-ins and performance measurements.”
However, for most employers – and most HR professionals – polygamous working is not going to be acceptable, even in the brave, new post-Covid working world. This is simply because of the deceit and secrecy that accompanies it; the fact it is a breach, not just of contract but of the psychological contract – the relationship of trust – that should exist between employee and employee.
“Not all multiple employment arrangements are problematic. Part-time roles or consultancy work disclosed to and approved by the primary employer may be perfectly acceptable. The issue arises when the employee deliberately conceals additional full-time commitments, or other commitments which impact their performance and breach trust,” Dodd points out.
“To mitigate the risk of polygamous working, businesses should consider updating employment contracts with clear, explicit clauses regarding exclusivity. Employers could also consider implementing more robust workforce screening practices, not just at the point of hire, but also periodic declaration requirements for any additional employment, which will create transparency. Proper and effective performance management should also be put in place,” she adds.
Sign of wider workplace problems?
Finally, and as Eshelby touched on earlier, any evidence of employees working polygamously should also perhaps be a red flag that there may be wider HR issues in the workplace that need addressing, such as pay, morale or productivity, highlights George Holmes, managing director of Aurora Capital.
If people are secretly holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet, it tells us that pay is falling behind the cost of living. That’s a systemic issue, not just a workplace one.” – George Holmes
“The rise in ‘polygamous working’ should be seen less as a scandal and more as a warning. If people are secretly holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet, it tells us that pay is falling behind the cost of living. That’s a systemic issue, not just a workplace one,” he says.
“Some have suggested that the solution is to end remote or flexible working altogether, but that misses the point. The issue isn’t where people work, it’s why they feel they need a second or third job in the first place. Removing flexibility could make it even harder for small firms to attract and retain talent, especially in a competitive jobs market.
“For small businesses, trust and accountability are essential. If productivity dips or deadlines are missed because someone is stretched across multiple roles, it hits harder in a small team. The long-term fix isn’t stricter oversight, but creating an economy where one job is enough to live on, and where small businesses have the support they need to offer fair pay and stable work,” Holmes adds.
Nevertheless – and while accepting that wider point – establishing robust confidentiality and data protection policies does become increasingly important in these situations, advises Dodd in conclusion.
But this also needs to be balanced with creating reasonable monitoring frameworks that respect employee privacy while ensuring contractual compliance, she emphasises.
“Many employers are also finding value in revisiting remote working policies to include appropriate supervision and accountability measures, without undermining the benefits of flexible arrangements,” Dodd advises.
“Transparency is key, and employers should thrive to foster a culture that supports openness and in which people feel safe enough to disclose outside commitments and their reasons for taking on another job,” she adds.
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