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If a person is having two full time jobs at same time and says he worked like that for couple of years, does this information show up in his employee background check when a potential employer checks his employment history before offering a job?

Does this raise an ethics issue where the future employer realizes that this employee illegally worked on two jobs at same time and declines the job offer? What employment related info will show up on employment history? Does it say contractor or full time in the history?

Note: I got two IT jobs in USA, luckily both happened to be full time into the IT space. how I got them and why...that is a different story..at one time i was out of job for 6 months and started working as a contractor for Company A which later turned me into a FTE after one year. But while this was going on, I got another telecommute job(at company B) which I was able to manage working evening hours and over the weekend. Both company A and company B are into different sectors but my work is IT work. Now my question is, if I apply for a better position at any reputed company and they do a BG check on my employment history, I guess they see both company A and company B. Given the complete scenario, is the new company going to question me how i was able to do both at same time and start questioning my work ethics? both my employments were LEGAL where I paid all taxes. so please help me so i take the right decision and will quit one to avoid ruining my career.

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    What country? As far as I know, working two full time jobs at once is legal in the US, but I believe it may be illegal in India. Even if legal, it may be prohibited by one or both employment contracts and/or policies.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 8:45
  • Its not only about jobs, in general - everything. If it's illegal: yes. If it's legal: no. What is your question actually?
    – Sourav Ghosh
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 8:50
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    @PatriciaShanahan: It will probably be illegal in all countries which impose a limit on weekly working hours. In all European Union countries, the upper limit (averaged) is 48 h per week. A quick web search seems to indicate that the limit in India is also 48 h per week (Indian Factories Act). Though these laws usually only impose punishment on employers, not employees.
    – sleske
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 10:13
  • @sleske, I thought those laws were to limit how much your employer could require you to work. Does that mean that if you wanted to work more to earn more money the law would block you from that?
    – cdkMoose
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 13:45
  • @cdkMoose: Yes to both. The law is binding for both employers and employees, there is no opt-out for employees I believe one motivation for that is that otherwise employers could pressure employees to waive the protections. However, at least in Germany, only the employers can be fined for breaking the rules, so in that sense the law only targets employers.
    – sleske
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 14:09

2 Answers 2

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Does this information show up in his employee background check when a potential employer checks his employment history before offering a job?

That depends on the location, available records and the intensity/depth of the background-check performed.

Does this raise ethics issue where future employer realizes that this employee illegally worked on two jobs at same time and decline the job offer?

Please clarify on why it is illegal to work two jobs? If a person is working two jobs and both of them are regular employments with taxes etc. paid and no contract laws or labour-laws are violated - why would that raise ethical issues besides that this person might not have much time to take care of family-life or personal hobbies?

If one job was 'illegal' in terms of a hidden employment where no taxes were paid and no contract exists - then how would a background check reveal this unless it was found out and recorded by authorities?

What if all employment related info will show up on employment history? Does it say contractor or full time in the history?

That depends on the terms that person engaged his employment at that time..

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    There are many countries in the world where two ‚full time‘ jobs cannot be had simultaneously.
    – DrMrstheMonarch
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 9:14
  • @morbo I'm from europe and here, for example many doctors work up to 80 hrs in the hospital (time-wise it's like having two full time jobs). In Austria for example it's legal to have two jobs unless you don't exceed 12 hours of work daily - with some exceptions..
    – iLuvLogix
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 11:06
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    there are a lot of exceptions in contract laws. There is probably even more leeway when talking about ‚critical jobs‘ like a short staffed hospital with 1 doctor when talking globally and the 190+ countries...in my general statement, as far as i know 1 contract where a person works more than they should (overtime i guess its called) is not the same as two contracts and I merely said there are many countries where having more than 1 full time job is not legal. The exact specifications, labour laws and contract laws I leave up to the reader for their specific local of interest.
    – DrMrstheMonarch
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 11:13
  • @morbo I fully agree with your comment above ;)
    – iLuvLogix
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 12:09
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    @sleske Generally your statement is correct: "The maximum weekly working time is 6 x 8 hours = 48 hours. Daily working hours may be extended to 12 hours, but must be adjusted to the average weekly maximum working time of 48 hours within a period of 24 weeks." But it's still possible to work more without being discovered (social institution normally don't perform a check) - unless you file a complaint yourself..
    – iLuvLogix
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 14:18
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Does this information show up in his employee background check when a potential employer checks his employment history before offering a job?

That totally depends on the intensity of the background check, and on the nature of the work performed. Usually, the main goal of a background check is to verify that the information given on the resume is correct (times of employment, possibly job function, education degrees). Checking whether the resume is complete is much more difficult, so it will not be necessarily checked - but it might be. In some countries it may be possible to check public employment or personal tax records, which would list all employments, but there is no general rule.

In general, the more important the job, the more thorough the background check will be. If you apply for stacking shelves at the supermarket, there will be much less checking than for a childcare worker, and if you want to work at the CIA, the check will be quite thorough.

Does this raise ethic issues when the future employer realizes that this employee illegally worked on two jobs at same time and decline the job offer?

Whether working two jobs is illegal depends on circumstances. Many countries have an upper limit for the weekly working hours (for example, 48h in the European Union and in India, with some exceptions) - exceeding that would be illegal. Also, employment contracts may include rules limiting or forbidding a second job, which might also make a second job illegal (though it woul not generally be a crime).

Legalities aside, if the hiring company gets the impression that an applicant deceived their employer by hiding a second job, this would most likely count against the applicant.

What all employment related info will show up on employment history? Does it say contractor or full time in the history?

Again, this depends on the type of background check. If the old company is contacted during the background check, it may provide that information, or it may not.

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