It was interesting to come across this term not too long ago. It is used to mean when you have more than one full time job at the same time.
Overemployed.
I hadn’t noticed there was a term for what I had been doing for a while now. I hadn’t thought that someone out there had basically dedicated their entire website to hosting like-minded people, who also had multiple jobs at the same time.
They’re based in the US, and a lot more people have been doing that there – from what I can tell of their website. But I haven’t really heard of people doing that in the UK. Often thought of as illegal, newsflash: it isn’t, I have found it quite rare to come across another person who is working two or three full time jobs at the same time.
If one good thing out of this lockdown/work from home drive has shown me, it’s that it is completely feasible to do multiple full time jobs, for full-time salaries. It has also highlighted to me how much time really needs to be invested in one job to enable you to do your role at its fullest. And it’s not 9-5.
I have had 3 full time jobs at the same time at once, being paid full time salaries. This, of course, you will declare to HMRC. But you need not declare this to your employers. I have very easily timed my meetings so they don’t clash, block out times for when you have to knuckle down to focus on the various jobs.
What did this allow me to do? Figure out what I wanted to do. I had been in academic research for the best part of 5 years and was finally leaving the organisation – more on that in another post – and so I needed to find an alternative.
The alternative always highlighted for the traditional scientist/academic, is the “medical writing” route. So I applied and got offered the job. But I didn’t want to hand in my notice at my previous job, because I would then miss out on redundancy money (I had the best part of a year left on my contract), and also be left with no safety net if I decided I didn’t like medical writing.
The benefit of this kind of job is that it can be done very easily from your living room and laptop. Another benefit is that when you join as an associate medical writer, you’re doing all the things that nobody else in the company wants to do; menial, painstaking, repetitive (bear with me!), but then this meant I had time to check my emails from my first job, join meetings ad hoc, even go into the office to do work that you had to pick up on while you’re on your break at your other job.
I didn’t like medical writing.
3 months in and I found it was boring and soul destroying. But I was getting two full-time salaries and I kind of liked that bit! So I kept them both and looked for an alternative.
The other alternative was working at a start-up company run by scientists turned entrepreneurs. Sounded interesting, I would be joining as a project manager. They enjoyed the interview and offered me the role on the spot. I was quite happy to take this up.
This is where it started to get tricky. The people at that company, weren’t necessarily the best entrepeneurs. They started asking me to work very long hours and doing things way below my pay grade. I had noted massive red flags in the first 24 hours of my joining (another separate blog post), I lasted 3 days before I decided I couldn’t work there anymore. One resignation later, I still had two full time jobs and two full time salaries. None of the employers was any the wiser and I was financially better off for it.
From this experience I learned that I can juggle two jobs, but not three. Three is a little too much, for the kinds of roles I want to do. I’m not happy being in the background. I want to have a lead on things. So it meant the search was still on. I interviewed a few places, and applied to over a hundred vacancies, whilst working two jobs. Then I got offered a job at a very well known organisation. I grabbed it with both hands.
And after finally realising I quite liked my latest job – I was quite happy to let the medical writer position go, and work out the rest of my contract from the job that was coming to a close. I didn’t have to tell anyone anything – bar the HMRC. The salaries that I was getting, I earned a year’s salary in a matter of months and saved up a fair bit while looking for the job I truly wanted.
By not telling previous employers I had a new job, I got my full redundancy pay out that I accrued over the last 5 years, which made a handsome saving to put towards other lucrative investments. I worked hard and worked well enough to enable me to give a good impression of myself at my employers and make some extra money on the side.
Is overemployment for everyone? No, not by any means. I did it because I had zero commitments outside of myself. COVID meant I wasn’t seeing anyone anyway, so it’s not as if my social life suffered. But if you have a family/kids you might find it tricky. Not that you couldn’t or shouldnt give it a try and see for yourself though.
I personally wouldn’t juggle two or three jobs for longer than 6 months at a shot. It’s enough to see out your probationary (6 months at most, unless your employer is a psychopath) and notice period, so your CV won’t look terrible to future employers – IF you want to include those jobs on your CV that is (I haven’t for the most part, especially since they’re not really part of my career trajectory). It gives you a tidy sum to put away. Gives you that extra push to getting closer to retiring early? Holiday?
The choice is ultimately yours.
Love & Laissez-Faire x