^{This text initially appeared on Enterprise Insider.}

Tomas, a Georgia-based IT employee in his 30s, stated his journey to an “overemployed” life-style started at a really younger age.

He grew up “very poor,” he advised Enterprise Insider, and after his mom left his father, he, his mom, and 4 siblings shared a one-room house for 2 years.

“As I bought older I used to be like, ‘I do not need to reside like that,” he stated.

In 2016, when Tomas had roughly $40,000 in bank card debt and was struggling to pay youngster assist, he determined to search for a second distant job he may work on the sly. Two years later, job juggling had helped him repay his debt, however he wasn’t prepared to provide it up.

“I form of felt invincible, and it made me really feel like that shall be one much less factor I’ve to fret about in life,” stated Tomas, whose id is thought to BI however has been withheld because of his concern {of professional} repercussions.

To at the present time, Tomas is secretly working two full-time distant jobs that pay over $250,000 a yr in mixed salaries, based on paperwork seen by BI. Doing so has helped him develop his web price to over $500,000, repay two new automobiles, journey extra, and discover “monetary stability and freedom,” he stated. Tomas added that he’d like to have a 3rd job if he can discover the precise match.

Tomas is amongst a small group of U.S. staff — many within the tech and IT industries — secretly holding a number of distant jobs. Working a couple of job without delay might not violate federal or state legal guidelines, but it surely may breach some employment contracts and be a fireable offense if a employee is ever discovered.

As layoffs have unfold throughout the tech business, Tomas stated the additional job safety that comes with overemployment has turn into much more essential. He is even inspired some colleagues to search for second jobs and offered recommendation on pulling it off.

“Firms will terminate you or lay you off with none discover in any respect,” he stated. “I now have the assumption that everybody ought to at all times maintain two jobs.”

Discovering the precise job for over-employment is not simple

Tomas has had a number of totally different stints as an overemployed employee.

Roughly a yr after he started his overemployment, he determined to take a break. He stated one in all his jobs grew to become rather more demanding and that he needed to regulate to the workload earlier than he took on a second job once more.

Moreover, all through this profession, Tomas has labored a mixture of full-time and contract jobs, and the latter have usually had an expiration date.

As pandemic fears have eased in recent times, Tomas stated he is additionally labored for firms that required staff to return to the workplace. Given working remotely was key to his overemployment, he determined to half methods with these employers.

These job separations are the principle cause Tomas has had roughly seven totally different jobs since 2017. Whereas he is typically had not more than two jobs without delay, he stated there have been three to 4 months when he had three jobs — and one month when he had 4. All however one in all his jobs have been distant — he stated versatile working hours enabled him to juggle a hybrid and distant position for some time.

At his peak, Tomas stated he earned near $400,000 throughout his jobs in a single yr.

4 items of recommendation for over-employed staff

Tomas has 4 solutions for folks within the over-employed life-style.

First: Know your job effectively so you’ll be able to full duties rapidly and dedicate time to your different jobs. Second: Determine which job has extra flexibility so you’ll be able to reschedule these conferences if want be. Third: To seem consistently on-line for a job, do not depend on mouse jigglers — he stated he thinks some IT departments can determine when staff are utilizing the latter. Fourth: For those who assume your boss is suspicious of you, it is most likely time to depart that job.

Tomas stated job juggling has been pretty simple in his two present roles. Each jobs have versatile hours, and his shifts begin at totally different occasions of the day — with solely three hours of overlap between them. He stated he is solely had one or two overlapping conferences which have required him to provide you with an excuse for lacking one in all them.

However throughout a previous overemployment stint, Tomas stated he had a boss who appeared to suspect he was job juggling — asking questions like why he was on-line effectively previous working hours. When these questions did not go away, Tomas determined to depart the job.

Until he finds one job that pays him over $250,000 a yr, roughly his present mixed salaries, Tomas stated he has no plans to surrender his overemployment.

“I’ll maintain going so long as I can,” he stated, including, “The rewards undoubtedly outweigh the labor.”