2nd job...do i need to declare this to work?

[Chattymama123]

Basically my boss is a cow. I currently work part time 30 hours over 5 days. I want to set up a side hustle (10 hours at home) which hopefully will become my main job eventually. Do i need to declare it and if so, can they put a spanner in the works?

Check your contract, it may have a clause about declaring other work.

Thanks @chessiefl ill dig it out!

Dug it out and it has this section... advice??!

I'm amazed that they can demand that. Surely it's none of their business what you choose to do outside your contracted hours. !

That’s been in all the contracts I’ve had too. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t do it. They just want to make sure that whatever you’re doing doesn’t affect your job with them.

Interested OP - what side hustle are you doing? I'm looking for additional WFH hours.

We have a clause along those lines in our employee contracts (I run a small business). It's fairly common I think. Our guys are all full time. But we have had a problem a few years ago with a guy having a second line of work (evening gigging as musician - nothing to do with what we employ him for). This did interfere - taking calls in the day, turning up knackered some mornings - and we did have words about it.

Yes i did speak to someone else at work and they said as long as your manager is aware and your not working over 48 hrs (basically so it doesnt affect my main job). I just know shes the kind of person who will not be happy....how should i broach it? In person or an email... it would be in writing then anyway..

@ChessieFLSetting up as a VA/social media manager (ive just trained in this)/web designer (just about to do a course but have previous experience). 10 hours but hopefully if it takes off, go for it and jack in my main job

@LtGreggs yeah i can understand that they dont want it to affect their employment. It wouldnt as id like to do that around the kids to top up my wage

Any advice on how to approach this??

I’ve done freelance hussle bits (writing, comms) and never declared it. As long as you do it on your own time and it doesn’t impact on your employed job, you could probably get away with it.
It’s also in my contract to declare, but I never have.

That's really standard in all contracts. It's right that they should know if you're putting yourself in a position where you might not be able to fulfil your contract and they also need to know for the working time directive (although does anyone give that any attention now?)

Thanks for all your input on this...
@Rebecca980 i have considered this but Linked In is where i want to put myself out there and all my colleagues are on there. So my dilemma is do i just go through and block them all and do my thing anyway or just be upfront and declare it?! 🤷‍♀️

Just dont want to get into trouble!

but Linked In is where i want to put myself out there

Tbh, LI might not be the right place for a (very) part time SMM or VA.
Big companies will be recruiting full time; smaller companies aren't as active on LI.

I would suggest local FB town pages are more suited to advertising small scale services for now. Does that change the issue - i.e. are your colleagues on your local groups too? (and in fact you could post in a business name so it wouldn't be necessarily obvious it was you)

Thanks for the advice @BuzzShitbagBobbly

I think im just going to tell them but keep it vague. Id be constantly on edge if i didnt say something and a colleague waltzed into the office, having seen my LI profile and started talking about it

The question to ask is, how would they ever enforce that clause? Especially if you could demonstrate that it wasn’t having an impact on your day-to-day work.

I would set it up, get established and then tell your manager.

I freelance alongside employed work (fixed-term contract) and was upfront about this when I had my job offer. I had previously given up freelance work in a paid role and, having then gone through risk of redundancy once, swore never to do so again. Employers in my sector rarely offer permanent roles, so I feel that it is not unreasonable to keep other options open. I am of course professional about it and never compete with or compromise my employer in my freelance role.

They could enforce it by sacking you for breach of contract. It doesn’t matter that the side work may not actually be impacting on your main job, but your contract requires you to tell them before you start the second job, so if you don’t tell them and they find out you could be in trouble simply for not having told them. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know how it would actually stand up but for me it wouldn’t be worth the risk.

Sacking someone is a lot of bother to go through if they are generally a good employee and the organisation has suffered no loss or harm through the OP’s activities. It seems unlikely to be honest. Surely they would have to give her a warning first?

The OP is thinking of leaving anyway, in the longer term.

Yes, the OP needs to consider if it’s worth the risk taking all of that into account.