The Overemployed Glossary: J1, J2, OE, and Every Term You'll See

If you’ve spent any time reading about working multiple remote jobs at once, you’ve probably run into a wall of shorthand. Here’s what it all means.

OE

Shorthand for overemployed or overemployment — holding two (or more) full-time jobs at the same time, usually without either employer’s knowledge.

J1 / J2 (/ J3…)

Your jobs, numbered in the order you took them. J1 is your original, usually higher-priority or higher-paying role. J2 is the second job you added. Some people run a J3, but two is the most common and most sustainable setup for a working software engineer.

Stacking

The general practice of holding multiple jobs at once — “job stacking” and “overemployed” are used interchangeably in most communities.

WFH stacking

A more specific term for stacking that only works because both jobs are remote — there’s no way to be physically present at two offices at once, so the entire practice depends on remote or hybrid-friendly roles.

Moonlighting clause

A clause in an employment contract restricting outside employment. Not all contracts have one, and not all moonlighting clauses are enforceable, but it’s the first thing to check before taking a second job — see our post on reading your contract before you start for more.

Detection / getting caught

The general risk of an employer discovering you hold another job — through calendar conflicts, monitoring software, a coworker recognizing your name elsewhere, or simple bad luck (a meeting collision, a Slack status showing “active” in two places at once).

Burnout

The most common reason people give up on OE — not detection, but the simple toll of doing two full-time jobs’ worth of work indefinitely. Managing this well is arguably a harder problem than staying undetected.

This glossary will grow as we publish more here. If there’s a term you keep running into and can’t find defined anywhere, that’s useful signal for what to cover next.