# The rise of polygamous workers: fraud or frustration?

- **Episode:** [194](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/194.md) (2025-05-06)
- **Type:** news-roundup
- **Tags:** polygamous-workers, fraud, workplace-frustration
- **Time:** 14:32–21:40 (start 872s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/194?t=872](https://truthliesandwork.com/194?t=872)

---

[14:32] Leanne Elliott: Polygamous workers
[14:34] Al Elliott: Ooh, say that word again
[14:35] Leanne Elliott: Polygamous. Am I saying that right?
[14:36] Al Elliott: I think so
[14:36] Leanne Elliott: Polygamous. How it's spelt
[14:38] Al Elliott: Yeah, polygamous. Polygamous
[14:40] Leanne Elliott: Polygamous workers
[14:41] Al Elliott: Right, well, what the hell is that?
[14:42] Leanne Elliott: Polygamous workers. So yeah, this was from the Times published this story. You fancy these days, don't you? I know. It's called The Rise of Polygamous— am I saying that right? You've got me doubting myself now
[14:54] Al Elliott: No, no, no, I think so. We look forward to your letters
[14:57] Leanne Elliott: The Rise of Polygamous Workers and Efforts to Catch Them Out. Pesky little workers. So it's looking at a growing trend of employees secretly working 2 or more full-time jobs at once without telling their employers
[15:08] Al Elliott: Right, okay, yes, I've seen a lot of this on Reddit. There's a— I think it's called Antiwork, is a big Reddit subreddit
[15:14] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, yeah, yeah
[15:15] Al Elliott: Yeah, cool, go on
[15:15] Leanne Elliott: So since the shift to remote work, some people have been juggling multiple contracts, either using AI to get tasks done faster or using mouse jigglers, mouse jiggling software. to fake activity, um, and it's being dubbed, um, polygamist working. I think we've also called— heard it called like moonlighting, isn't it? Or, yeah, um, overemployment, another thing it's called. Um, so a recent investigation by the National Fraud Initiative—
[15:42] Al Elliott: Jesus, this has got— this, this got real serious real quick, didn't it? National Fraud Initiative, go on
[15:47] Leanne Elliott: National Fraud Initiative found over half a million pounds in overpaid salaries in just a few London boroughs, and now councils and employers are cracking down, warning managers to look out for red flags like long email response times— how dare you even take a moment to think about a problem or a response— refusal to take time off, or employees— how dare you be overcommitted to my organisation— um, or employees avoiding video calls, because clearly that preference isn't okay. There have been cases in court. One civil servant allegedly held down 3 full-time government jobs at once
[16:23] Al Elliott: Well done. Good for you
[16:26] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, but I guess this is where it gets interesting and maybe a little bit uncomfortable, because yes, working multiple full-time jobs without disclosure is dishonest. And yes, there are some serious implications around trust, productivity, potentially ruining it for the rest of us when it comes to remote work. But I think the important question is why? Why is this happening? We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis that's been going on for, well, really, have we even recovered from the pandemic? Has that even happened? Inflation squeezing every single household. Getting on the property ladder if you're under 40, is that even possible now? Particularly in London. And job security doesn't exist anymore, the amount of layoffs that, that we see. So in that context, is it any wonder that some people are looking for ways to earn more, even if that means bending and, let's be honest, sometimes breaking the rules? Workers are being chased for having more than one job. And yet, you know, the hypocrisy— large organizations still exploit as many loopholes as they can to dodge tax, dodge accountability, to pay people what they're worth, quietly trim headcount to boost margins. It doesn't excuse the behavior, but I think it, it just makes me wonder, are we focusing on the wrong problem? Why are we spending money, or why is this fraud initiative, whatever it is, spending money to catch out these hard-working people who are just trying to stay afloat. I just think it's a bigger conversation about how we build fairer, more sustainable workplaces that actually pay people a living wage. It isn't about fraud to me. It's about frustration. It's about survival. But maybe I'm just on my soapbox. Al, what do you think?
[18:08] Al Elliott: It's not fraud, it's frustration. That's a brilliant, that's a brilliant t-shirt right there. Right. Okay. The way I look at it is that, and I always, I've been very open about this, is that I don't really care how long it takes someone to do a particular job if they're working for us. I want an outcome. And if that outcome is really, really good, then we'll pay, you know, good money for it. If it just does the job, we'll pay the minimum we can for it, you know? But I'm, it's outcome-based. And it really surprised me when you said there was actually court things. I didn't know that was fraud. I thought it was just a bit like, oh, you shouldn't do that. But
[18:41] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[18:42] Al Elliott: I didn't realise it was actually fraud. So if you are doing this, just double-check, like, you know, that you're not actually going to get yourself in real, real— can I say the word shit? Yeah, I can. Yeah. But I'm like, why? Why care? Because if these people are clever enough and they leverage technology enough to still get 3 jobs done in their week, fine, great. I think I look at it as then the managers are going, oh, we must be overpaying them. So managers are getting, like you said, greedy. Managers are getting greedy and going, oh, well, we can actually probably pay less for this. No, hang on, you're still getting the same outcome anyway. Right. I'm sorry, I borrowed your soapbox there for a second
[19:20] Leanne Elliott: I'm gonna step back down
[19:21] Al Elliott: Yes, there you go
[19:21] Leanne Elliott: Back to you. Yeah, no, I think, do you know what? I think this is, this is, these are 2 words that I think are gonna be talked more and more about over the 12 months, over the next 12 months. Psychological contract. Right. As employees, we have a psychological contract with our employers. And that has not only been breached in the past 5 years, it's been ripped up a little bit at a time, screwed up into a little tiny ball, and then thrown at us in a really irritating way. It's just— there's just none of it left
[19:49] Al Elliott: Can I just— sorry, just want to clear— no, I just want to clear up psychological contract for anyone who's not come across that term before. What does it mean?
[19:55] Leanne Elliott: It's just these expectations that we have of our employer. It's about their behaviour, about their promises. It's about what they've committed to us as an employee, like allowing us to work hybrid and then calling everybody back into the office, that is a breach of psychological contract
[20:09] Al Elliott: Right
[20:09] Leanne Elliott: So if things like, if I show up, I work hard, I stay loyal, you'll support me, you'll treat me fairly, you'll invest in me, you'll develop me— when people stop feeling like that's true, then it completely changes how we behave in the workplace. It completely changes how our dynamic with work works. That's where quiet quitting comes from. That's where rage quitting comes from. That's where every trend that you see on TikTok is coming from. It's certainly where overemployment is coming from. And when we look at the levels of disengagement as well, which are higher than they ever have been, I just, I just don't think it's any wonder. And my frustration is this constant finger-pointing at the individual rather than saying, what is driving you to the point where you are having to commit fraud and have 3 jobs? Because I can't imagine there's many people out there that just wanna be that busy
[21:02] Al Elliott: And if you, I think talking about being busy, if you go back about 2 weeks ago, we had Casparus go on talking about why being busy is the wrong thing you should be saying. So if you, if you do find yourself saying, I'm very busy, go back and listen to that. Leanne, I love this because you've essentially summed up most of the problems in work as breaking a psychological contract. So there you go. So we fixed your workplace for you. Anyway
[21:25] Leanne Elliott: Anyway. So yeah, I'm sorry for the rant there. Started on a high and ended on a rant, um, with some hog in the middle
[21:33] Al Elliott: Some hog. It was a hog sandwich
[21:38] Leanne Elliott: Yes