While remote work is often looked at as a way for workers to more easily achieve work-life balance and reduce burnout, many full-time workers are picking up additional work. In October 2021, ResumeBuilder.com found that 69% of remote workers have a second job.
To find out if this trend has continued, ResumeBuilder.com surveyed 1,250 Americans in October 2022 who are employed full-time and work either fully remotely or hybrid. The results reveal it’s become even more popular to work multiple jobs.
Key findings:
- 79% of full-time remote/hybrid workers have another job; one-third are employed by more than one additional employer
- Working multiple jobs is most common among software developer/engineering, finance, and sales professionals
- Inflation is driving 37% of full-time workers to work multiple jobs
- Two-thirds steal primary company’s time to work for others
- 59% are experiencing burnout
1 in 5 remote workers have at least two full-time jobs
Seventy-nine percent of workers work outside of their full-time job. More specifically, 48% are employed by another company full or part-time, and 39% are self-employed.
Of those who work for another employer, 69% have one additional job, 21% two, 8% three, and 2% have more than three additional jobs.
For more than half (54%) these additional jobs are full-time. Thirty-nine percent work one full-time job, 11% two, 4% three, and 0.3% more than three.
Finance, sales, and software developer/engineering professionals are the most likely to work multiple jobs or have a side hustle.
One-third make an extra $100k+ working for themselves on the side
For many of those who are self-employed or have a side hustle, it’s no small project.
Thirty-seven percent work more than 40 hours a week, and 10% work more than 60 additional hours to their full-time job a week.
This hard work is paying off for many, as 37% earn themselves an additional $100,000 per year.
Those who are self-employed are most commonly independent contractors. However, there are a variety of other ways individuals are earning money for themselves, including having a small retail business (28%), gig work (28%), and an eCommerce business (24%).
Inflation drives 4 in 10 to work multiple jobs
When asked why they are working multiple jobs, the plurality (44%) said to have more spending money. Top reasons also include wanting to add to savings/investments (44%), inflation (37%), and wanting to pay off debt (36%).
According to career strategist and job search coach, Stacie Haller, remote work is ripe for workers to take on multiple jobs.
“Jobs that can be done remotely offer a ton of flexibility, and today, the measure of an employee’s contributions are less on the time they spent working and rather on how productive they are and how able they are to meet deadlines and expectations,” Haller says.
“So for workers who want to earn additional income or dip their toes into something new, particularly those workers who are highly productive and can get through the work for their primary job relatively quickly, we see them picking up additional work.”
Two-thirds steal primary company’s time to work for others
When asked if they do outside work during the business hours of their primary full-time job, 65% say they do.
For hybrid workers, 38% say they even do work for others on the days they work in-person.
According to Dennis Consorte, a small business and startup consultant, the problem may lie with unclear expectations.
“If people are spending a lot of time at work moonlighting for other companies, it could be a sign that goals and expectations haven’t been set properly. This can be challenging to do, depending on the field,” says Consorte.
“For example, it may be difficult to calculate how many hours of developer time it should take to complete a deliverable. But what you can do is compare people’s results on similar projects. If you find that one person is underperforming relative to their peers, then it might be a sign that they are either spending too much time on non-work activities, or that they are just not good at what they do. In either case, you may want to replace them.”
91% say they are meeting expectations at work
Despite the fact that many are working another job during the hours that are supposed to be dedicated to their primary full-time job, 91% say they are meeting expectations at work.
Additionally, 71% say it’s easy to manage multiple jobs, and 94% say they are productive.
However, 59% say they are ‘probably’ (37%) or ‘definitely’ (22%) experiencing burnout.
“There is always a root cause for burnout. It could be that expectations are too high. Or, it could be that a worker no longer feels excited about their work. This is often due to poor communications around the mission and values of a company, or a misalignment of those values,” says Consorte.
“If you notice employees are burned out, then start by evaluating whether the workload is reasonable. Next, have a one-on-one meeting. Ask them what they were excited about when they first started working at the company, and what changed. Listen carefully to the feedback and see if it’s in your control to improve their experience in a way that makes sense. Remind your team that you value them and their work, and remind them of the values that your company represents. Give them clear, achievable goals and continue to work on the root cause of their burnout. Try to be supportive, and also be mindful that there will be cases where it’s not possible for you to reverse someone’s negative mindset, and this could infect the rest of the team.”
Methodology
All data found within this report derives from a survey commissioned by ResumeBuilder.com and conducted online by survey platform Pollfish. In total, 1,250 Americans were surveyed.
Appropriate respondents were found via Pollfish’s screening tools. To take the survey respondents had to answer that they currently work full-time either remotely or hybrid.
This survey was conducted on October 21, 2022. All respondents were asked to answer all questions truthfully and to the best of their abilities.
