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?

@IchLiebePudding I did a tax return. It came back saying I didn't have to pay a penny.

I paid tax on all my jobs after the 12k allowance

We once had a CF freelancer at work who spent over half of his time in the office receiving calls and working for other companies on our time and thus being paid by us as well. I kind of admired his nerve. He got away with it for 2 weeks, until I cottoned on to what he was doing.

@PandanSwissR0ll and @IchLiebePudding there's a good chance I didn't even earn 12 grand that tax year. The revision guide writing was part time and poorly paid. I worked there for about 4 months. I also made peanuts with my freelance writing. It was worth it to build up my portfolio, which led to better things in publishing.
The tax return had a section where I listed my non self employed job, everything was above board. Perhaps save your pearl clutching for actual tax evaders, like big businesses, rather than a starving writer?

I am considering this at the moment, I work 4 days a week remotely and I'm never that busy, I can pretty much do the job in my sleep. The chance has come up to take on a second role for 6 months for another organisation at the same time but I'm not sure if I'd have to tell my employer or not!

We'd all love to hear about it if you do!

Back in the 90's I had two part time jobs, 1 was 8-12 and the other 1-5, this was fir about 3 months when job 1 decided they wanted me full time

Then again a similar thing happened when I got made redundant in 2013, started a pt evening role which continued once I found a ft position but that was way tiring so ended the pt role about a month in

A salutary lesson for one person
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/4949988-hr-personnel
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/4956881-gross-misconduct-dismissal

Well some people on that thread really were rubbing their hands together weren't they...

I felt a bit sorry for the OP tbh, although she had obviously made mistakes.

@BadSkiingMum they were.

I see this phenomenon as part of a wider re-shaping of the world of work. I am not saying it's right, by the way, as I would rather live in a UK where people have decent pay, conditions and could look forward to a fair pension. But the roles where that exists are dwindling.

A wider question is how much of us do our employers own? Our thoughts and intellect, beyond what is necessary to do our role? It already seems to be widely accepted that intellectual roles can parlay their talent elsewhere.

One of the most successful productivity YouTubers Ali Abdaal (whom I am a big fan of by the way) freely admits that he used to do a lot of the mental planning and ideas generation for his side-business on his phone, in odd gaps in the day while he was working as an NHS doctor.

What about Prof Tim Spector? He formed the Zoe company while he was working at King's College, collected a lot of data from the general public during Covid (with the best intentions no doubt) and yet Zoe now seems to have morphed into a huge healthcare business.

Some of our MPs have substantial second jobs elsewhere.

The vast majority of NHS consultants do private work, after having hugely expensive training mostly funded via the public purse. Do we imagine that they never think about or liaise with their private patients during their NHS days? I very much doubt it, even if they employ an appointments secretary.

Then there's the non-exec director phenomenon...

Yet woe betide Lucy the accounts assistant if she realises that she could do a PT job alongside her FT role in order to pay off her mortgage quicker, as long as she is prepared to work harder and skip her lunch breaks.

A similar idea: has anyone known someone to contract out elements of their work and free up time? This could be employing a PA to help themselves work more efficiently or employing some other form of subcontractor.

I don’t think this is new - it’s called ‘over employment’ and people have been doing it for years.

Some employer application of agile working measures output not time in the office. Together with 24-7-365 working, it’s quite easy to see how employees do this.

I recently flagged up a concern about a colleague, but the manager basically shrugged his shoulders. Made me wonder if he’s doing it - colleague produced crap output levels and pitiful quality of work. Always had to ‘research’ and ‘chase up’ on things, but never documented anything and no audit trail of his work, funny enough. Pissed me right off, especially as he was a contractor and already getting paid twice us much as the permanent staff. Planned professional theft I call it!

I think there is a difference between doing two full time jobs between 9-5. Where It is highly unlikely you can do both and deliver the required output to the required quality.

Compared to doing one 9-5 job and then doing a second job that works flexibly around the first job.

This is why WFH requires output focused objectives as you either deliver or don’t.

I've read loads of articles about this being popular in the US, especially for tech people, who can often whack out a days programming or whatever in a few hours.
I knew a woman who had 2 NHS jobs simultaneously and didn't get caught - mind blowing!
Aside from her I don't know anyone, but do know people who dabble in crytpto / day trading etc during their working hours, so generating income whilst on the clock for someone, but not as employment.

@Dotdashdottinghell
Two NHS jobs? Wow, was it actually two jobs in the same hospital?

@BadSkiingMum she was wfh in covid as some sort of admin, then picked up hours doing the track and trace work simultaneously. It was such a crazy time for the NHS she somehow stayed under the radar.

I'm a single parent and have worked two jobs for three years - one full time in a government role and one 30 hours a week which I do from home in the evenings and weekends after my child goes to bed. Both employers know I have two jobs. Slightly tricky from a tax perspective as I'm freelance on my evening job and PAYE for my main job. But it's really helped me out in terms of finances and I'd only be sat alone once DS goes to bed.

Really wish I could do this! Currently NHS (non-clinical middle management) and due to staff shortages and no backfill I’m literally working 10 days of work a week in full time hours (can’t claim overtime either). However I’m too much of a scaredy cat in case I got found out and no way would my employer sanction it

There’s a subreddit which is quite active about this (r/overemployeduk). Seems quite popular with IT tech people. Some posters have up to 3 or 4 jobs (or so they say!).

@Sundaysunshine22
You are a bloody hard worker- all credit to you.

@Dotdashdottinghell
Ah, I get the picture. I was imagining something more like Charlie from casualty popping upstairs in his breaks to see patients on the Holby City Ward!

Ideally one has to be low stress and easy to manage