In times of social and health crisis such as exists now, is it proper or ethically questionable for me to get a second job when many people have just lost their primary source of employment?
My current job is pretty stable for me. Working from home isn’t a thing for me but it pays decently, has good benefits with great health insurance and is largely immune from the pressures that are forcing other places to close. I promise you, we are in an entirely new world of societal upheaval if corporate management plans any kind of extended shutdown of our facility. If we have materials to run and warm bodies willing to show up, we’re open for business.
I’m up for consideration for a part time job that I think would work well for me. This second job is extra money that I can’t say that I need but it would be nice. If I’m honest, my main motivation is to quickly pick up some extra short term cash. I’m quite close to paying off the mortgage on my home. If I can get that accomplished by autumn then that would be a tremendous relief for me.
For someone else, this job may well mean a roof over their head and food on the table.
My personal belief is that when an employer has a position that needs to be filled then it’s their obligation to hire the best applicant for that position. The applicant’s need for that job is not automatically a factor in making their choice. At the same time, I don’t automatically assume that the employer can’t or shouldn’t factor such need when they decide who to hire. You could argue that for me, this second job is something that I’ll drop like a hot rock when it no longer serves my needs while another person might cling to this job with a desperation appropriate for someone trying to get a seat on the last helicopter out of Saigon.
Do I openly and honestly compete for this job with full, public acknowledgement of my short and long term goals and let the chips fall where they may?
In 2011, the Navy command where I worked was undergoing a Reduction in Force (RIF). I was eligible to retire, so I decided I would, in the hope that at least one of the younger engineers wouldn’t be RIF’d.
Nope. All the youngest folk were soon gone, so I guess my retirement let one of the less senior engineers stay.
I don’t regret retiring - I heard from my boss that there was a major reorganization and from what he described, I wouldn’t have been happy had I stayed. On the other hand, as he listed all the folks who remained, I had a feeling the reorg was necessary because senior folk didn’t want to do the grunt work, and discontent abounded.
Moral of the story (such as it is): Make your choices for you. You can’t be responsible for what happens to everyone else, assuming you’re not spraying everyone else with automatic weapon fire. You can be a decent human being living a decent life even if you get a job that someone else may have needed.
FWIW, I got bored after retirement and had a series of part time and temp jobs before finding another full-time slot that suited me till I retired last December. I didn’t feel guilty about taking any of those jobs, even tho I was getting a decent pension every month.
First, you’re not ethically wrong from chasing a second job if you want it. You’re entitled to barter away your free time, after all.
Second, though, is that the concept of job hoarding - under various names - has been a real issue over the years. The 40-hour work week, for example, came about through Union action to ‘share the work’ and allow others to have jobs during a time when a 60-hour week was the norm. So there’s some rational to what you have put out there.
I remember watching a documentary about lottery winners. A couple of the winners decided to NOT quit their jobs. Which wound up causing all sorts of resentment from their fellow coworkers. If I remember correctly, I think they wound up quitting because their coworkers were being such dicks to them.
If you don’t need a job and are gainfully employed in a stable company then yes, it’s an ethical consideration to think of the needs of others in a time of crisis.
I lost a good job during a recession and it took 6 years of crappy part time jobs to recover. I was thankfully for the crappy part time jobs.
If you want to do this, do it. You need to take care of yourself (and your family, if you have one) and while other people may also need that job, that job could potentially become, as you put it, a roof over YOUR head and food on YOUR table.
You can look at it as an individual or as a part of society. You have every right to take an extra job to save up extra money. However, if you do this during a crisis, when many around you have lost their jobs and are not going to be able to pay for rent, utilities, and food, it becomes an act that hurts others more than it benefits you. Timing matters.
There is a grocery store across the street from me, more or less, and a few other close ones. I have a lot of extra time and little else to do at night, and it crossed my mind to look for a job at night stocking; they need people to do that. $15 an hour isn’t shabby and it’d keep me busy and moving. I don’t NEED the money, but I could always use more money.
But then I decided not to. I still have my day job - knock on wood. I am working from home. Canada is setting all new records for people who need unemployment benefits. To someone else, $15 an hour for 10-20 hours a week could be a Godsend. I chose not to go ahead.
I wouldn’t blame you for trying, though. It was just my personal choice. Do what works for you.
If I understand correctly, the rational behind France’s labor law that as I understand it literally forbids people from working more than 35 hours per week, was to prevent what the OP calls “employment hoarding”. The idea being that if one person does extra work, they’re taking work away from someone else.