In 2021, Phil saw the workload at his software engineering job reduced considerably. He began wondering what he could do with the extra time on his hands.
Soon, an idea came to mind: He might be able to juggle two remote roles simultaneously.
“Since many jobs were remote at that time, I thought of trying my luck,” Phil, who’s in his 30s and based in Texas, told Business Insider via email. His identity is known to BI, but he asked to use a pseudonym due to fears of professional repercussions.
After a couple of months, he landed a second full-time role and didn’t tell either employer about his “overemployment.”
Secretly working two jobs has made a big impact on Phil’s finances. He’s on track to make nearly $350,000 this year, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. Roughly $150,000 of this would come from his second employer — a subsidiary of a US-based company that pays him in a foreign currency. He said being overemployed made it possible for him to allocate nearly $75,000 to his retirement funds last year.
Having a second gig has also provided Phil with valuable job security. Last year, he said he was among the thousands of IT and tech workers who were laid off, but he had another paycheck to rely on until he found a new “job two.” What’s more, he said he hasn’t typically worked more than 50 hours a week across his two jobs.
But despite all these benefits, Phil is considering quitting his second job sometime this year, in part because he said job juggling has taken a toll on his physical and mental health, as well as his personal life.
“Overemployment definitely helps as far as financial security is concerned,” he said. “But that comes with a cost.”
Phil is among the Americans who have secretly worked multiple remote jobs to boost their incomes and job security. BI has interviewed over 20 of these job jugglers, many of whom work in the IT and tech industries. These people have made as much as $1 million a year across their jobs and used their earnings to pay off student debt, save for retirement, and afford expensive vacations and weight-loss drugs.
While some companies may be OK with their workers taking on a second job, doing this without approval could have negative repercussions. Additionally, intense competition for remote roles, return-to-office mandates, and burnout have led some job jugglers to question whether overemployment is sustainable.
Phil shared his top tips for managing two full-time jobs, the biggest downsides of this lifestyle, and why he might give it up.
After he started job juggling in 2021, Phil said he began looking for information online about whether secretly working multiple remote jobs was legal — and whether anyone else was doing the same thing. That’s when he first learned about the “overemployed community.” There are over 300,000 members of the subreddit r/overemployed — where workers share tips for finding jobs and avoiding detection.
“To my surprise, I saw that people were doing up to five parallel jobs, netting home over $1 million,” he said.
Over the past few years, Phil has maintained the same primary job — or “job one” — but cycled through a few secondary roles. He quit one because he needed a break and was laid off from another. For a couple of months, he said he tried juggling three jobs at once until the workload proved to be too much.
When it comes to finding remote jobs, Phil said he’s generally used LinkedIn and the remote-specific job board We Work Remotely.
When it comes to managing multiple jobs, Phil said there’s one big key: time management.
Phil’s strategy has been to do the “bare minimum” at both of his jobs, which he said has been necessary from a time management perspective. He said he avoids meetings he thinks are “useless” and sometimes double-books these meetings across both employers to save time.
“Having two 40-hour-a-week jobs doesn’t mean you have to work 80 hours a week,” he said. “You have to be smart enough to do more in less time.”
If you want to advance in a career and stay at a company for a long time, overemployment isn’t for you, Phil said.
“If you consider work to be just a means to get financial security and are happy to see others get promoted while you are just meeting the expectations at both the jobs, then it’s a good idea.”
Phil said overemployment has come with a few big costs.
First, he’s found it difficult to focus on any single job, which he thinks has affected his work quality.
“I was more worried about doing the bare minimum at both the places to survive,” he said.
Second, he said the longer working hours — which have occasionally extended to as many as 60 or 70 hours a week — have been draining and left him with less time to focus on his relationships.
“It takes a toll on your health,” he said. “Anything up to 50 hours a week is sustainable for me and that is what I would suggest for most people.”
It’s for these reasons that Phil said he’s considering giving up overemployment this year.
Before anyone starts job juggling, he recommends they consider the impact it could have not just on their finances — but also on other areas of their lives.
“Look at your life as a whole and not just from a work-money point of view,” he said.
Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? Are you a manager who has experience with overemployed employees? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.
