“Working two jobs” means …

[Seagullsandclouds]

I always assumed that when someone says they are “working two jobs” it means they have a full time job, but times are tight so they have also had to take on a part time (or even sometimes an additional full time) job.

It is usually said with implication of extraordinary efforts.

Several times recently I have seen people write that they are “working two or even three jobs”, still with the context being that this is an extreme thing to do, but it turns out they are all part time, not even adding up to full time between them.

I guess that multiple part time jobs are probably more common these days with zero hours contracts, and I know it can be stressful trying to juggle the time commitments, but I don’t think it’s the same as working significantly more than a full time job. I usually had several simultaneous part time jobs as a young adult, in fact I didn’t give up my Saturday retail job until a couple of years after getting a “normal full time” job.

YANBU - “working two jobs” should mean more than full time.

YABU “working two jobs” just means having more than one employer regardless of hours.

I agree 2 jobs means full time with a side gig

I think it depends on context. If you are in a school hours, term time job, for example (so PT), then add in a weekend job or a couple of night shifts, then it might only add up to FT, but it will feel like more. If you are doing two hours per weekday, then a Saturday job, then less so.

It's like when people talk about 'working long hours' as if they're always working but then you learn they work a shift pattern which means they do 13 long days a month to average a normal 37.5 hour week

I work 2 days for one charity and 3 days for another (both paid roles). Causes no end of problems when it comes to arranging holiday, training courses which impinge on the other job's days etc. I usually refer to myself as working 2 jobs. But by the look of the poll right now, I'm being unreasonable and shall stop ! Not sure what I say instead though!

Just say you have two part time jobs?

I dont think there needs to be any kind of dictionary definition, if it's not clear in the context of the conversation just ask

I have 3 jobs! One employed and 2 self employed. Adds up to about 45 hours, maybe more with admin.
I feel safer having more than one source of income and I get bored easily so like the variety.

When someone says 'worked three jobs to pay the bills' I assume they had to scrape around for work in low-paid shift jobs with insecure hours. Which certainly doesn't sound much fun even if the total hours aren't that much more.

I agree that I would have assumed it mean one full time job and having another on top and implied extra hours over full time.

Increasingly people have to patch together lots of jobs to get to full time and it does have its own challenges and needs a way to describe it too. I do have more than one job. I say I 'work two jobs' but I do say I have 4 jobs totalling x hours'