Smart or unethical? The new wave of getting multiple tech jobs and outsourcing to freelancers

What makes one get a tech job only to outsource it to someone else?

Tayo* works full-time as a project manager at a tech company based in Lagos. In his role, he manages a product that connects interested parties, mostly companies, to freelance creative talent. So when a customer said they needed a technical writer he offered himself. He had the experience of a technical writer from a previous job. But even then, he knew he would not be able to focus on this job with his schedule, so he outsourced it.

“Most times, as a professional, I could be swamped with work and more jobs keep coming. It is only logical to outsource to capable hands so as to maintain your clientele,” he told Technext recently.

“Also, I have always been a resourceful person. I am that guy my friends come to if and when they need anything. They just know that I can fix it. Even if I cannot, I know a guy that knows a guy. After a while, I decided to monetize this. And so I charge people for services and get the right hands to execute,” he added.

Just like Tayo, Ibinabo* also works at a tech company based in Lagos. In her full-time role, she manages a team of contractors that help facilitate the flagship product of the company. She had the experience and so told two of her friends who didn’t have the experience to apply.

When they got the jobs, she more than tripled her hustle, overseeing the contractors under her, and also doing the job of two contractors. Because she worked for a fully remote company it worked perfectly for her. So she outsourced the two contract roles to people who knew how to get it done.

“Due to the overwhelming stress of handling my job alone while juggling other responsibilities, I decided to explore the option of outsourcing part of my work to someone for a fee,” she said.

The rise of outsourced tech jobs

With the increase of remote work and other flexible work patterns following the COVID-19 pandemic, outsourcing jobs have gradually become a mainstay in the labour market. Professionals have always gotten friends and family to assist with the demands of their jobs.

But what has become trendy is that these professionals outrightly pursue these new roles, including at times entering contracts with the companies and then paying someone else to do the job, while they focus on their main hustles.

But with a rising rate of employment, young Nigerians looking to make any income jump on these opportunities even though they know that they might not be compensated based on market value. they just get what the person who was employed chooses to give them.

“I am surrounded by resourceful people. I am not only surrounded by people who need to get their jobs done, I am also surrounded by professionals who are looking for gigs and jobs,” Tayo said. From this pool, he can divert as many as possible jobs to himself creating a steady pipeline of extra cash for himself.

Read also: The age of remote internship: examining the pros and cons of tech’s new corporate trend

He said that he asked them first how much they will take for the gig, and then he works with their rate. When the salary comes he sends them their money and takes his cut. But for a smaller one-time gig, he said he exposes his “asset” to the client and lets them know he isn’t the one doing the job but assures them it will be just as good. “For the smaller jobs, I could expose my assets to clients. However, for big contracts, it is a continuous process,” he said.

Ibinabo takes a different approach to salary. She takes into account the contributions that her outsourced staff made to the work and how complete they leave it.

“The payment I offer them is based on the amount of work they complete and their level of contribution,” she said. “Whenever I feel that they have put in extra effort or worked more than expected, I compensate them by increasing the amount I pay them,” she added.

What will happen if the company finds out that their job was being outsourced to someone else? Tayo could not care less about them finding out.

“Outsourcing is not bad. I mostly tell my clients that I have a team of professionals that I work with. As long as I can prove that I supervised the work and it is an impeccable job, I don’t think the client will have an issue,” he said.

Ibinabo also echoes a similar sentiment. “I don’t have any foolproof method to prevent them from revealing this arrangement to the company. If they choose to do so, I believe my company is more concerned about the completion of the job rather than the specific means by which it is accomplished,” she said.

Ibrahim* had told all who cared to listen that he was looking for a more stable source of income. So when a friend told him of a fairly stable gig he jumped at it. He didn’t know that it was being outsourced to him.

But he knew that the friend didn’t allow him to speak directly to the client. He had been looking at building a professional tech portfolio so he took the job. But the client decided to pay him directly because his friend already worked at the company full-time and couldn’t take the job. He realised that his friend had pitched him to his bosses and then acted like he was the one offering him the gig directly.

When the payment came after the job, it was more than 45 per cent of what he had told his friend he would charge and so he thought they had paid him extra money. Then his friend sent him his account details and asked for the extra money. It was almost 100 per cent extra what he told his friend initially he would charge for the job.

“I did the job, but I got it through him so I was willing to settle him. I just thought that he would have at least told me I had priced myself cheap,” Ibrahim said. “The fourth time he brought the gig, I increased my fee by 30 per cent and he just ghosted me,” he said.

How do these outsourcers keep people encouraged to continue to accept these jobs especially when they know that they are outsourced?

“Everyone in Nigeria feels like they are working too much for too little. The hack is to bring in jobs regularly for them,” he said.

For Ibinabo it’s more an economic downtime temporary development to make extra cash than a full-time side hustle.

“It is no longer wise to rely solely on one job, which is why I have pursued multiple employment opportunities and outsourced some of my work to alleviate my workload,” she said.

What the companies think

For the human resource department of many companies, it poses a great problem. Idris Adesina, a Lagos-based researcher on organisational behaviour said that it underscores a lack of integrity on the part of the employee.

“Outsourcing a job without authorization is not just a breach of trust; it’s a betrayal of ethics and professionalism. A reputation, built on integrity, cannot afford the cost of such actions,” he said.

“An Employee outsourcing his job raises significant ethical concerns.”

It is fundamentally dishonest and unfair to collect a salary for a job that someone else is doing. This behaviour goes against the principles of integrity and personal responsibility, which are highly valued in the professional world,” he said.

For how long can one continue to outsource their jobs while holding a full-time role?

“I plan to continue outsourcing my work for as long as possible until I achieve a more stable income that allows me to manage everything on my own,” Ibinabo said.

“To be very honest, this is how business works,” Tayo said.