Here are the Challenges of Working Multiple Part-time Jobs
Working multiple salaried part-time jobs has countless benefits as I mentioned in my previous blog post. But, there are also challenges with this style of work and, if we're not purposeful and strategic, working this way could do us more harm than good.
One challenge is organizing our schedule. Juggling more than one part-time job is sometimes like putting puzzles pieces together. Keeping our schedule straight can be a challenge, but that isn't anything that a good calendar on our phone can't solve. I use a regular, hard copy calendar that was custom created for me by a former client rather than an App on my phone. For me, nothing seems to work like old fashioned calendar.
Another challenge with having multiple incomes from salaried, part-time jobs is dealing with taxes on part-time wages. If enough tax isn't taken off monthly with each pay cheque, we can end up paying taxes at the end of the year on our combined income. In the past, I have had a chat with payroll in each organization to let them know I am working a few part-time jobs, so they can adjust taxes. I always suggest to talk to a payroll expert and tax specialist to help you with this. They are the professionals.
Another potential and serious issue is monetary increase in salary. If we are working part-time, we are more than likely not gaining height in terms of climbing the ladder of promotion and monetary value within an organization's salary structure. In a former blog post titled Climbing Trees Instead of Ladders, I highlighted that the ladder concept is not foolproof when it comes to stability. However, we can't ignore the fact that climbing the ladder is how many companies continue to structure their salary grid.
As a result, full-time positions will have a pay scale that will reflect an employee's education and experience, will be aligned with inflation and the cost of living and the employee can climb the pay scale ladder yearly until they hit the top. With working part-time, the salary structure may be based on an hourly wage or, in my case when I was teaching part-time, both full and part-time employees had the same pay scale but it took me two years to get to the next rung, double the time of a full-time worker. Whew...calculating like this, it would have taken me 20 years to hit the top and by that time, the climb would have made me ready for retirement but not eligible!
Lack of negotiation power can also be an issue with part-time work. In an organization that negotiates salaries, full-time employees will be able to negotiate based on increased responsibilities and/or performance. Depending on the job, part-timers may not have the negotiation power due to reduced responsibilities within a part-time job or because they are paid under a different structure. Long term, the inability to negotiate plus the slow climb up the ladder could produce what I like to call the "working poor syndrome" with workers working multiple jobs but not able to keep up with the rising cost of living because they can't climb the monetary ladder or negotiate for higher wages. There are several articles written on this concern regarding the gig economy and it's challenges.
Retirement and benefits also have to be factored into the equation. Depending on the organization, part-time workers may not be entitled to benefits and retirement packages. We then have to save for retirement on our own and pay for the dentist out of our pocket. Based on the book The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton, Canadians tend to spend more than we take in. Consequently, saving for retirement and benefits on part-time jobs will likely be a stretch for many Canadians. That doesn't mean it isn't possible. With extremely disciplined spending and saving, I have known workers like Dr. Barb, in a previous blog post, who have worked multiple part-time jobs strategically as a retirement strategy. However, it concerns me that working multiple part-time jobs long-term without a strong plan in place may cause more harm than good.
The final issue is related to burnout. The potential for burnout exists in any job, full-time or otherwise. However, with more than one part-time job, we are learning more than one company culture, we are interacting with more bosses and co-workers, we are forced to learn more than one system of operation, and likely will have to learn more than one software system or master various technical skills related to each job. It can be a lot to adjust to and we may feel overwhelmed. It can be challenging, but a word of encouragement would be that I believe the skills I built adjusting and responding to different work cultures and people are part of the strengths I now have, honed from years of experience working multiple jobs.
Finally, when we hash out all of the challenges associated with working multiple salaried part-time jobs, we have to strategize carefully. I have met people that have successfully worked longer term in this way, but they are good with money. In other cases, this strategy may be a temporary solution that can potentially have excellent value for the reasons I covered in my first blog. As a longer term strategy, a wise idea is always to seek potential help from money experts like Money Mentors, a not-for-profit organization in Calgary, or a financial planner who can also help adjust budgets to match income, so we work and spend wisely. Having a financial plan in place over a longer stretch of time will help to make this a purposeful way to work.
This blog features:
Money Mentors, Calgary www.moneymentors.ca +1 888-294-0076
The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton
Here are the Benefits of Working Multiple Part-time Jobs
Having difficulty breaking into an occupation? Do you need flexibility in your work life? Would you like to get started in an industry? If job seekers are strategic, streaming income from multiple salaried part-time jobs can have countless benefits. It can be beneficial to new graduates starting their careers, job seekers moving to a new city, province or country and for people who are transitioning into a new occupation or industry. Workers can leverage opportunities, build a larger network, gain valuable experience and pay bills (not a bad idea).
I have had three major career changes in my life, and I have used this strategy to break into a new occupation and industry each time. Out of high school, I trained to become a legal office administrator. I was test driving law as a potential career direction. After working in the industry, I decided this wasn't a path I wanted to pursue with a degree, and I retrained to become a teacher. After five years of studying, I graduated into a recession with stiff competition from laid off, experienced teachers. School divisions were downsizing and there were few full-time jobs. I did get interviews but no jobs offers. The response from employers, "We hired someone who had experience."
It was an extremely frustrating experience because the logic didn't add up. How was I supposed to get experience when no one would give me a job? I clearly needed a strategy. After a few days of sitting on the couch watching old reruns of Oprah, I pulled myself together and strategized. I pieced together four part-time jobs to help me financially weather the recession, while building skills and a much needed network into the teaching industry.
To accomplish this, I tapped into my contacts and through my roommate found a part-time job in a daycare to build experience working with younger children. I then talked to a teacher who informed me that the entry point into teaching was through subbing. I applied for the sub-list and worked two jobs as a substitute teacher to build my network into schools. I kept my part-time banking job (that put me through university) because I could work evenings and weekends, plus it provided me with full dental and eye care benefits. It was also my back-up career plan.
I will admit, it was a juggling act, and I sometimes answered the phone at the bank using the name of the daycare. However, it was worth it. Within 10 months, I was offered a temporary full-time teaching job that turned into a permanent full-time position six months later. In the interview, the school division was impressed with my ability to juggle multiple commitments. They apparently believed if I could juggle four jobs, I could manage a classroom of 30 grade three children.
““I will admit it was a juggling act and I sometimes answered the phone at the bank using the name of the daycare.” ”
I have also worked multiple jobs to launch a career in another country. Fast forward a few years to when my husband and I moved to Japan to teach. We did our research, talked to teachers coming back from Japan who encouraged us to work multiple part-time jobs. With this style of work, we would have the freedom to work for whomever we wanted and take more vacation time (big bonus). Upon our arrival, we pieced together part-time work, and a private business, creating six streams of income and the ability to create our own schedule and have more time to travel throughout Asia. This strategy also eventually increased our network leading to a full-time job and more lucrative part-time contracts.
I have also worked multiple jobs when I have transitioned from one occupation and industry to another. Fast forward again to when I decided to move into the career development field. I was working as an academic/career advisor/international student coordinator/ESL teacher (yes, that was one job) in a high school when I decided to move into the career development field. I quit my job so I would have time to explore other options.
While researching and talking to people in the career development industry, I worked part-time teaching English as a Second Language to adults. I wanted to add adult education experience to my skills and I needed to pay my bills. It was through my part-time work that I was "discovered" in the lunch room by Carol, a supervisor of a work placement program. She offered me the opportunity to job shadow which turned into a full-time job offer. By having a conversation in the lunch room, I had tapped into a hidden opportunity in the career development industry through my part-time teaching job. From this experience, I learned that we can't underestimate the power of just getting ourselves into the building.
Savvy portfolio careerists know that working for multiple companies part-time gives them more opportunity to share their skills, double the potential for promotion, a larger network and double the potential to learn and be mentored. It also provides the opportunity to explore various industries, learn first-hand about potential career pathways, jobs that are dying out and work that is emerging within the hidden job market.
Strategizing and working multiple part-time jobs can create opportunity and beats sitting on the couch watching Netflix and the bills stack up. However, nothing is perfect. And, because nothing is perfect, in my next post, I will hash out the challenges associated with working multiple part-time jobs.
How to Always Have Your Toes in the Sand and Still Make a Living
Photographer - Michael Mims
Quit your stable job to live and work between Mexico and Canada. Sounds like a good idea? Ten years ago, Al and Denise did just that. They pulled up stakes, and sold their house close to Calgary, Alberta to live in Mazatlan, Mexico in the winter and Saskatchewan, Canada, for the summer. It sounds like the perfect retirement plan, but they weren’t even close to retirement.
Al and Denise were known for taking risks that involved significant life changes. They had moved to Japan several years before to work and income stream from a variety of teaching ventures in the city of Sapporo, Japan. They had a reputation among their friends for being hard working people who had learned how to work with intention. They would figure out a way to accommodate their desire for a waterside and golfing lifestyle.
The idea to change gears came to Denise in a workshop during a teacher’s convention. At the time, she was a principal of an elementary school. The workshop facilitator asked the participants where they saw themselves in five years, and the image that came to Denise's mind was not working in her current job. She saw herself in Mexico and not just on a beach for a short vacation. The facilitator then asked them to share their vision with three other people, and Denise was sitting at a table with co-workers. She confesses, “I felt I had to be honest with them. I didn’t see myself in the school I was working in. I honestly saw myself working in Mexico in five years.” She then adds, “Because I put it out there, from that point onward the steps that we took led us in that direction.”
Changing direction isn’t always easy and Denise admits she struggled with making the decision to quit her job. However, the following year, at the end of October, she knew she didn’t want to do it anymore. “I knew it was bad timing. The school year had just started. Although we had a great staff, and we enjoyed spending time together, I decided to resign in November. I still loved the job but I didn’t want to not like it anymore. I helped transition the new principal. Then, I started a small business course.”
Al and Denise were living outside of Calgary in the community of Redwood Meadows in the beautiful foothills of the Rocky Mountains. They had spent a great deal of time and energy getting their home just the way they wanted it, but their attachment to their home and community didn’t stop them from starting on a new adventure. During that school year, events converged in Al’s job as a vice principal to further solidify their desire to pack up and move to Mexico. They then heard about Judy. Judy was someone who was living and working in Mexico. After meeting her, seeing her pictures, and hearing about her lifestyle, Al and Denise were convinced they could do it. Al quit his job, they sold their house in June 2007 during a hot housing market, and the portfolio career adventure in Mexico began.
Their first goal was to get settled in Mazatlan. They bought a house, then sold it and bought another. They taught English to start out and Al got his real estate license and started selling real estate with Remax. Denise became Al’s assistant helping him show listings to buyers searching for a vacation or investment property. While helping Al, Denise noticed there was a need to help vacation and investment property owners manage their properties when they went back home. She started a property management business and also worked as Al’s assistant showing listings. Denise says, “I thought I would be starting a business having to do with education. But, when you see an opportunity, you jump on it.” She partnered with her Mexican friend who took care of business when Denise went back to Canada in the summer. For two years, they worked like this in Mexico.
Their first summer back in Canada, Al and Denise built a lake front property in the province of Saskatchewan with Al doing a lot of the work himself. Their lake home was in a good location with access to First Nation schools, rural school divisions, and schools within the nearest city. They immediately got on the substitute teacher lists putting to work the skill sets they had honed working in education. Denise also took courses that allowed her to work and substitute teach in the local correction's facility. To add to their potential income streams, Al’s cousin suggested he get into the crop insurance business. Al started taking courses to become a crop and hail adjuster in the agriculture industry. Between studying, substitute teaching and building their home, they were busy. Denise says, “It was a busy summer and Al was able to do a lot of work that we would’ve paid a contractor to do, so he didn’t work for a pay check but he saved us money by working on our house.”
Strangely enough, you would think that with all the moving back and forth between two countries that their multiple careers would become stagnant over the years, but they didn’t. In Canada, Al was willing to travel while they were home, so he quickly moved up the crop insurance ladder eventually becoming storm boss, managing groups of insurance adjusters. Because hail insurance is a seasonal job, it fit well with Al’s new lifestyle. In Mexico, he eventually went into partnership with another real estate agent. It became a running joke with their friends that Al had become like Chevy Chase in the movie Fletch, juggling multiple jobs and business cards.
Denise’s career in Canada also grew. She was offered a permanent position as a special program coordinator with a school board in conjunction with the local correction's facility to work with boys in corrections giving support to continue their education. She designed the program, developed the curriculum and taught. She worked in this program every summer, gaining seniority with the union, and taking a leave of absence in the winter to go back to her work in Mexico.
Back in Mexico, Al and Denise partnered with Shawn, another real estate agent, and expanded what they started with property management increasing Denise’s workload and turning Al and Shawn into “The Real Estate Guys” a name Denise jokingly called them. As a new company, there were all sorts of glitches selling new property, and eventually they did this for two years until the business became a lot of work. That's where their portfolio career story takes another turn, creating a Part II to their story.
Over the years, Al and Denise learned how to change gears and adapt their work life in order to do what they love and live where they want. They have designed a portfolio career in Mexico and Canada that is enviable in how they have been able to piece together work from two different counties in such a seamless way. Al and Denise are now on another adventure that includes an online business. So, we will see where their portfolio career takes them next.
If you want to learn more about how to work as portfolio careerist like Al and Denise, subscribe to Career Corner Toolkit for FREE monthly injections portfolio career tips, To subscribe to Career Corner Toolkit or to have a free consultation, go to my home page.
I would love to connect with you if you are thinking of starting an independent career or already have one and want to OPTIMIZE.
How to Juggle Multiple Income Streams with a Portfolio Career
Photo by juan pablo rodriguez on Unsplash
Crystal Willms is in mid-transition with her portfolio career. She has recently changed her website name and logo. Her new brand is The Crystal Factor rebranded from Headway Coaching. “I’m in mid-transition with my portfolio career,” she offers. “Headway Coaching has been around since 2008, but because I have expanded so much it no longer matches all of what I do. I changed the name, logo and website to thecrystalfactor.com.”
Crystal’s brand tag line is “Facilitating Positive Change” and coaching is at the root of what she does. Since she started coaching brain injured clients, she has added public speaking, career transition consulting, outplacement, and writing. She became a virtual franchisee with Juice Plus, a Reiki Master Practitioner and has recently returned to modeling. Whew...that's a long list of things to do. I call her the portfolio careerist extraordinary because she makes her juggling act look easy, and she approaches her work life with an adventurous, open spirit.
For 8 years, Crystal worked as an employment specialist exclusively for brain injured clientele supporting them in their return to work. She transitioned to a new team and now works on retainer working up to 32 hours a week. Her role is to coach clients for personal or professional goals. Her hours vary from part-time to full-time weekly. She also privately coaches non-injured and injured clients who come to her through word of mouth, networking, speaking engagements and referrals.
Coaching and Juice Plus support health and nutrition and are the root of her portfolio career. Although the two services attract different clientele, they are the financial foundation that brings her stability. Crystal believes you need one or two streams of income that have consistency. However, she clarifies, “We (portfolio careerists) understand that stability is not necessarily consistent so we become adaptable.”
Adaptability is the name of the game with portfolio careerists. They derive their stability from their ability to adapt to change. Although Crystal has a foundation for her portfolio career, she has learned to change things up and move forward quickly. She describes herself as being less attached to outcomes. “If something doesn’t work, I believe I can create something new that will work.” She envisions her portfolio career to be like the ocean. “It ebbs and flows so change feels more natural. I am able to adapt, move on and find something else.”
“Adaptability is the name of the game with portfolio careerists. They derive their stability from their ability to adapt to change.”
I asked Crystal what she believes is the recipe for success in a portfolio career. She sees having a higher degree of multi-tasking ability as a helpful skill set. She also thinks being accustomed to receiving less direction and being comfortable making decisions would be important skills. She has noticed that portfolio careerists spend time planning where to spend their energy. Crystal adds, “There are sometimes multiple decisions to make in an instant. We have to quickly decide which direction we are going to choose and we evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each direction. In some cases, these decisions are going to be made based on current financial need, or other factors driving our portfolio career.”
Portfolio careerists make rough value based decisions on a regular basis. Crystal and I discussed the reality of paying our bills and she pointed out that she often makes decisions based on helping vs. making money. As Crystal says, “Depending on what we are doing, well paid work and work that pays less don’t play together and there is no crossover.” This creates an interesting juggling act for portfolio careerists. She adds, “In some cases, work may pay well, but we may not love it as much. Then, there is work that pays less, but we love it more.”
Just like any job, there will be projects and tasks that we prefer. With portfolio careerists who have entrepreneurial ventures or do more contract work, they design their work life, accepting and turning down work based on various factors. In some cases, they choose work based on personal values, interest or passion. Other times, they choose projects or jobs because they have to pay the bills. Work isn’t always glamorous or a perfect fit, but portfolio careerist value the variety they create in their work lives and the freedom that comes from choosing the work they do.
In some cases, work adds value in other ways. Crystal’s modelling jobs are a great example. She finds modelling to be beneficial on a personal level because, she says, "It fills my cup. I love it and I'm learning about myself." The networking opportunities are also amazing since she is interacting with people she wouldn’t normally meet, and is extremely fulfilled from those experiences. She also feels modelling improves her coaching practice because it makes her a happier person and being a happier person isn't a bad thing!
“Crystal believes you need one or two stable income streams.”
She also believes her modelling builds character, challenging and pushing her outside of her comfort zone. In turn, she feels she can better understand, lead and support her clients who are forced to face significant transition and challenging change. She also adds, “When we are forced to face our fears, then we also become better entrepreneurs and better leaders.”
Crystal approaches her portfolio career like an adventure, and we had fun unpacking the concept, discussing the challenges and benefits and what this style of work means to us. We had so much fun, in fact, that I have enough material for a Part II. My next featured Portfolio Careerist post will be a continuation of Crystal’s story.