The following is a success story from a user who wishes to remain anonymous with some light edits. Visit our Reddit community r/Overemployed.
So I’ve been enjoying the OE life now for over 8 months with J1 and J2. It’s working great and I usually don’t work more than six to seven hours each day. This January (2022) bonuses were paid out and I made a nice 20% on top of my base salaries, which were over $25K per month. I’m loving it. Best January ever.
I was talking to my spouse the other day about how easy it’s been juggling both Js. They reminded me this actually isn’t the first time I’ve done this! I totally forgot. Back around eight years ago, I actually juggled two physical, in-office jobs! How did I do it? Looking back, it was insane and I honestly can’t believe I got away with it for six months.
Fed Up With J1
It went like this. I’m in tech – fed up with my current place, so I started interviewing with competitors and landed an offer. The start date came along and I got some feedback on the new job from an insider that things weren’t as rosy as I thought. So I thought to myself, why not take the new job (J2) and try it? I won’t resign from my current job (J1) until I’ve at least tried J2 out for a couple of weeks. I took PTO and went to work at the new office. Both J1 and J2 are about 10 minutes and two subway stops apart on the same line.
Two In-Person Jobs At Once – OG Overemployed
I went to the new job for two weeks and thought, “I’ll keep at it a little longer since the old job barely notices I’m not around much.” I was in charge of a large team and spent most of my time delegating things around from team to team, dealing with prioritization and similar management problems across both jobs. I shifted most of my interactions to emails and calls (sadly Zoom was not a thing yet). My boss spent half of their time in our other office across the country, so I’d rarely see them anyways even when I was there.
So for six months, I shuffled between offices on the subway, going mornings to one job site and afternoons to the other, with some days getting complicated where I would have to go back and forth on the subway from meetings to meetings. It was insane.
The Accidental Layoff
After six months, J2 had a big reorg and shakeup, and things were not going well. They laid a few of us off. I got three months severance out of the whole mess. Isaac’s note: get your “sign-off” bonus by mastering how to engineer your layoff and negotiate a severance, even when you’re not being laid off!
All in all, I had nine months of paid J1 and J2 in-person, at a competitor’s job site. It was a hustle and definitely a lot more stressful than today’s remote COVID world with multiple jobs. I love today’s OE world much more.
Hidden Health Insurance Benefits
I even recently combined dental insurance plans on a complex operation for my kiddo – both J1 and J2’s plans cooperate on the coverage and I had to pay nothing on a $2,500 bill. It was amazing. The billing person told me they were impressed by my “coordination of benefits” across both plans. I just walked out of there with a big smile, while my kiddo’s face was numb from the procedure. Isaac’s note: see how health insurance plans work.
Fantastic and inspirational story