Has anyone worked 2 jobs at the same time? Did it work?

[WishIWasACavewoman]

I'm intrigued by what seems to be a remote working-enabled trend for some people to work 2 jobs at the same time.

I don't mean people struggling on low salaries doing a cleaning or bar job in the evening, which sadly I know isn't a new thing. Or 'side hustles' like selling craftware or tuition out of hours. More like professionals using remote working to simultaneously do 2 jobs each of which is assumed to be their only job. Like this Forbes article.

I'm not looking to make my life more difficult but the appeal of a second income is obvious. I'm a senior manager with a more than FT job, but I can see that taking a single-minded approach to delivering my objectives only and not engaging with anything else would get me about 30% of my time back (this isn't my working style at all, I lean in to everything). I still don't think I could do an equivalent second job at the same time, but potentially could do a series of consultancies or freelance writing.

I'm clearly thinking about this too much, but would love to know if anyone's ever done this, and if so, whether it worked, and how you avoided melting down with the juggling, extra work and deception involved. Was it worth it?

Surely the entrepreneurs of Mumsnet have some insight here?

Im curious about this too after my husband showed me a YouTube video of someone who worked remotely and basically subcontracted his work to other people 🙈

Wouldn't it get complicated from a tax perspective in the UK at least if you're PAYE for both? Maybe not complicated but I think you'd have a hard time hiding it.

Yea I was thinking that. It's a bit easier in the USA I think as you just get a W2 and file your own taxes.... I'm actually American living in Yorkshire. Wonder if I could get a remote USA job. Might be easier to cover my backside with the time difference 😆 Or you could potentially do freelance work and sub contract it out which I guess people probably do anyway?

Thinking of the issues of trying to do effectively two full-time jobs at the same time.

Employers are bound to realise that you aren't as productive as others.
Meetings are likely to clash.

A ton of stress, and for what?
You'll end up paying 40% tax, on probably most of the 2nd jobs earnings.

I guess it's possible but a bit like someone having an affair you'd get caught out sooner or later

I freelance alongside a part-time role, but I have always mentioned this to my employer at offer stage. But it’s generally ok because you can pick up or not take-on jobs according to the peaks and troughs of your main role. Once or twice it has felt a bit too full on, but I do the freelance work because I really enjoy it. Also my sector doesn’t guarantee employment longevity, so I think it’s fair enough to keep an extra iron in the fire.

The deception element? I think that has always existed - you used to occasionally hear stories of people running side businesses from their desk - but the advent of home working has just expanded the possibility to new roles.

I strongly suspected that someone I managed in my previous job was doing just that. He was unproductive compared with others, reluctant to come into the office, even though he lived nearby, and would choose a desk away from teammates when he did. Incredibly hard to prove though if a job is WFH 4 days a week with a culture that says you're just supposed to trust people as a manager. I do think it's an issue with WFH roles.

Not the same but I used to have a job at a beauty spot. Part car park attendant/ tourist information/ part holder of keys and cleaner of loos. Fine when it was busy. On Rainy days you would literally be there for hours and hours with nothing to do. I used to do surveys or little bits of work online. I spent a lot of time training AI to recognise speech on clickworker type stuff.

It was probably really cheeky but actually my boss loved me as previous employees would bunk off when it was raining which caused funding issues as it was supposed to be attended. There were definitely days where I doubled my pay with lucrative side gigs.

Im not sure your employer would be impressed if they found out.

I do several part time roles and the nature of the work means it can be more productive to do them at the same time. Theres a lot of sending emails and waiting for reponses, or doing the same website checklist so you might as well do all employers togerher, training covers all 3. I do have to block off some points to dedicate to one at a time though.

One of my first jobs was like this. I was literally paid to just sit there. I asked all the time for work and was given nothing. Wish I had been saavy enough to think to do this. It was soul destroying! This was 20 years ago. Not sure if online surveys were a big thing then.

This is very interesting! Sounds like the main job being part time, and the second job being freelance or intermittent, are some of the conditions needed. I agree with PP who queries the tax situation if both jobs are PAYE (in the UK).

I suspect it only works if the main job is focused on a set of deliverables too, which you can just get your head down and create. Unfortunately my job and I'm sure many other is less about delivering XYZ and more about bring present and inputting across a continuing wave of big and little projects. Harder to check out. Still probably possible to reclaim some time but essentially I think I'd end up doing freelance work at evenings and weekends, so not really at the same time.

Tax can be sorted out fairly easily by doing a tax return.

I think the key to any kind of autonomy at work is to manage your own diary.

A related idea is that of doing a full-time contract but not quite working full hours in order to manage home-life. To be honest, I think a lot of people do that, sometimes in really cheeky ways!

I’ve been doing this for the last year. Two full time contracts, wfh. Both clients think it is my only job.

To pull it off you have to be (a) a good liar, and (b) at least 3x as competent as the average person doing your job. It’s always going to be quite niche. It suits high performers who would rather earn cash than get promoted to a stressful management post.

You really do have to keep quiet about it as some people don’t think it’s ethical (“the employer owns you” mentality), and will cause trouble if they find out.

It's called freelancing if you do it above board

I work remotely for 2 companies in the US, both are aware. Occasionally do some ad hoc work for another

Yes I have to do a tax return etc. but the flexibility and rewards are great

I had a remote job writing revision guides (employed) and secretly kept up my freelance writing. Employer never found out and as I earned under 12K from my freelance stuff I didn't have to pay tax on it.

I did my tax return

DH does it, he’s in IT.
He manages because he is very very good and half of him is worth more than one of some of the jokers they’ve got on one of the projects.
The end users don’t know but one of the interim company owners does and doesn’t care as long as all the work is done on time and well.
If DH has to do any F2F meetings for 1 project he takes a day off the other one (he’s a contractor) or just does additional work to catch up. His mate is in the same role with the same projects so they can help each other out too. It was actually his mate who he met on one project who suggested it might be possible and introduced him to the second one.
Its great, he literally gets paid twice

I have a main job working 9-3 and I freelance a bit too, as long as there aren’t core hours and it’s project based I can do it. I usually earn an extra £500 per month

Been doing it for years! Have to be super organised and calm when inevitable clashes occur. And my tax code/tax paid is my own business not my employers!

It's an interesting concepts. There are people whose employment contract does stipulate that it should be their only job.

I saved my first house deposit many years ago doing exactly this. At the time it was very unusual for a single woman to have a mortgage on their own.

Main job was secretarial, well paid. But completely a 9 - 5 type job, with no pressure as such. I had a boyfriend whose parents ran an upmarket hotel/pub so I used to help out behind the bar some evenings and weekends and his Mum paid me. It was good fun too!

HR Director.

Most, if not all UK companies would have a “conflict of interest” process whereby permission would need to be given for a second job for employees. The employer has a duty of care under H+S and WTD that extends beyond the work done for them. If they have a conflict of interest policy and you breach it by working for someone else without permission as they found out about it you’d be sacked for gross misconduct and possibly prosecuted for fraud.

This isn’t what the OP is about. It’s what I did when I bought my first house (aged 19) but both the same as working for 2 employers simultaneously in the same time period. IE 9-5 for both of them.

I did it last year for a while. My main job was 2.5 days a week and my 2nd job added up to another 1.5 days. It didn't work for me but that was more to do with my set up. My second job was along the lines of 'a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there spread over the week. And the pattern changed every week. So it was quite bitty, required a lot of careful scheduling, but still required quite a bit of mental focus. I found it tough having to switch my attention and focus between job 1, job 2 and parenting etc.

I now work 0.8 FTE in my job, so only have to focus on one set of responsibilities. And have much more predictable hours. I periodically supplement it with a small freelance job that comes in at predictable intervals about once every 4 months

I worked for an organisation with an internal graphic design team. One graphic designer was caught freelancing in work hours. He was sacked.

I knew a mature student who had a council caretaker job. Opening and cleaning changing rooms for football pitches.
Would study while the games were being played.