Do I feel guilty for working multiple jobs?

The short and sweet answer is absolutely not.

And neither should you.

Let’s all be pretty frank and clear here, we as a generation cannot hedge our bets on so-called “permanent jobs”.  In the current economic climate, there is no such thing, which means there is a severe lack of stability and credibility on the employers end.

I’ve seen some Twitter posts from some severely butt-hurt employers whining and moaning about how they feel cheated by employees that they found out are working multiple jobs.  They have followed their ranting posts with proudly saying that those employees found to be working multiple jobs have been subsequently fired. Shame on them for firing people who are simply trying to preserve their futures.

At this point, I’d also like to call out those colleagues who speak to their supposed work-friends in confidence about their over-employment journey, only to tell-tale on them to their bosses. May all you kinds of people never know peace, since you ripped it out of the hands of someone who was building for theirs. Just know we have multiple other jobs – thankfully – so walking away from a pissy employer and their teacher’s pet employees is a positive outcome.

So, coming back to the topic – why I don’t feel guilty for having multiple jobs, and neither should you.

1. The employer has hired you to get a job done, as long as you are completing that job, that’s all they should be interested in.
2. The employer will drop you in a heartbeat.  Calling all the bullshit employers who claim to have your best interest at heart, we know you don’t.  When times get really hard, it’s complex enough to get time off, let alone a pay raise from you people.
3. If you lose everything tomorrow, your employer will not be the one picking up the pieces.
4. You’re an expendable cog in the machine, and employers know this – so many people have been made redundant, with an unfair 24 hours notice. Guess who’s paying your bills? Not them.
5. They feed off people’s desperation. This bit sucks ass.  It’s a chase to the person who will accept the lowest wage out of desperation. They consistently offer low wages for jobs that they should pay more for, because they know people are desperate. A word of caution to you when negotiating your wages in interview – internal HR people are known to low-ball their offer, so counter-offer higher or risk being taken advantage of.  Make sure you do a search on the average pay for that job and add a little extra for you. How do I know this? Because a HR person has said at one of the company meetings I have attended that they “hate that people accept their first offer because it’s a low offer.” My answer to that is, don’t be such a twat and continue to play games with someone who is already pretty pressed by all the hoops you make them jump through to get through your interview process. We’re all just trying to live here, show some compassion. We tend to accept the low offers, because we’re mentally and emotionally depleted by this point. So to reiterate, don’t be such a twat.
6. Lastly, no I don’t think I am taking the job away from another person – I fairly and squarely interview for the role, and I undertake all necessary tasks, hoop jumping, and admin procedures to take the role on. So should you. Once you learn the knack of getting through, the offers will start rolling in.

Employers cannot in good faith expect people to hold their futures hostage on one source of income these days. It’s hard enough for us considering the rate of inflation, high cost of living and constant threat to any form of stability, to take into account the feelings of a company who think we’re cheating on them.

Us being overemployed has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with us. It has never been about you, and going forward I sincerely hope this trend stays.

I’ll see you at the next post yeah?

Love & Laissez-faire! x