Juggling Multiple Jobs

System · June 2011

I've had several conversations with people recently (younger and older workers) about working multiple - often diverse - jobs. Then I recently saw this article in the NY Times and it got me wondering if any of you have workers (full-time or part-time) who are juggling multiple jobs.

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/26work.html[/url]

This article focuses on the effects on employees and why they're doing this. I'm wondering what the view from the employer side of the fence looks like on this issue.

Personally, I've juggled multiple jobs most of my grown up life. The most interesting was caring for a friends animals (dogs, horses, and cats) when she got a job that required travel. Nothing like starting your day before dawn with a prayer you don't meet up with a skunk or snake in the dark while filling feed buckets and hay racks.

ACU Frank · June 2011

I juggled multiple jobs until about 12 years ago. In addition to my "real" job, I worked overnights at a psych hospital, then I worked as a stadium beer vendor. Concurrently, I umpired or officiated little league and rec league baseball, softball and basketball games. Several of those years, I was getting my masters. It sucked, and I can't imagine being on that merry-go-round again. I don't know how I managed to be where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. I have a few employees who are trying it, but we definitely see problems because of it... particularly anytime you need one of those employees to stay a few minutes late. (Or, in at least one case, anytime we need her to actually stay for her whole shift... but that's another story.)

cnghr · June 2011

At any given time, we probably have a dozen employees system-wide who are juggling multiple jobs, for a variety of reasons, and with different effects. One of my co-workers worked two other jobs in addition to working for us, and handled it so well I would never have suspected it until he told me. We have another person who works another full-time job on top of her full-time position with us, and I've never observed her having any problems because of it. Of course, there are always two sides to every situation, and we have had others who have had multiple problems working multiple jobs. One employee took a second job and started calling in sick to her job here frequently, because it was too taxing for her to work 8 hours for us and then go work another 7 hours at a much more physical job, so she was constantly exhausted. Our policy states that if you have a second job it should not encroach on your duties at your primary job, so after some counseling about the effect that her second job was having on her employment with us, she decided it was better to quit the second job.

I think the oddest thing I've ever had regarding juggling multiple jobs was the person who requested to go to a part-time schedule for a few weeks in her position for us so she could take a temporary second job the other half of the day. When she was told by her supervisor that they needed her there for her normal schedule, full days, she came to me complaining that her supervisor was picking on her by not letting her cut down her hours so she could work elsewhere!

System · June 2011

I hadn't thought about the implications for not being available to work additional hours if needed. That was issue never came up for me when I was job juggling.

I suspect that the person who complained about her supervisor not letting her cut down on her hours complained about many other things that were equally odd and illogical.

cnghr · June 2011

[quote=Wendi Watts;722582]I hadn't thought about the implications for not being available to work additional hours if needed. That was issue never came up for me when I was job juggling.

I suspect that the person who complained about her supervisor not letting her cut down on her hours complained about many other things that were equally odd and illogical.[/quote]

Oh, yeah, you're right about that. Her big thing was that she always thought that when her supervisor did what they were supposed to do, that they were just "throwing their weight around". I had to tell her more than once that, no, the supervisor was doing exactly what we pay our supervisors to do.

I suspect part of the issue stemmed from the fact that she was personal friends with the supervisor's family before coming to work for us and she had problems separating the "family friend" part from the "supervisor" part. I wouldn't be surprised if part of her issue was that she expected preferential treatment, and then when she didn't get it, she assumed the supervisor was "picking on her"!

joannie · July 2011

We don't allow full time employees to "moonlight" without HR approval. Requests are reviewed on a case by case basis. We would never allow anyone to work a second job in our industry and our drivers are not allowed to have a second job at all.

kelros · July 2011

We also require full-time employees to disclose outside employment or contracting. We are a non-profit funded in part by government, and that contract precludes anyone employed with us working in a child care facility. Also, we do not allow employees to contract out for work that is similar to what they do for us - that should be a contract with us or just part of our regular service. We have invested a great deal in employee's professional development which is why someone might want them to come offer a training for their organization.

We have had minimal attendance problems with folks with two jobs, but mostly ours is the primary job and the other is some part-time job to make ends meet, sometimes temporary to get out of debt or save for a big planned expense. Overall, it has not been a major problem.

Juggling Multiple Jobs

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