With rising living costs and economic uncertainty, some workers are looking beyond traditional side hustles to increase their income. Instead, they’re secretly juggling two full-time jobs at once, a practice often referred to as “overemployment.”
For one healthcare worker, becoming overemployed has brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra revenue — and helped him gain financial security.
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In an interview with Business Insider, the remote healthcare worker, referred to as “Daniel,” says he now makes $330,000 a year (1) working two full-time jobs. The publication first spoke to him in February 2025 (2), four years after he began working multiple jobs at once.
At that time, he was making $280,000 a year secretly working two remote jobs in the medical field. He said the additional income helped him grow his retirement savings and complete home renovations.
Since then, his extra income has grown and contributed to the purchase of a rental property, which he hopes brings in enough passive income to reduce his need to work full-time. It’s also made it easier for him to cover his child’s college tuition.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Daniel.
He says he’s now working longer hours than ever before — as many as 60 hours a week between his two jobs. Making matters worse, one of his employers has now asked him to come into the office a couple of days per month, while the other employer is now tracking how he spends his time.
He says he brings his other job’s laptop to the office, finding moments to work on days he has to go in. He’s also attempted to delay complying with his other job’s request to track his hours, acknowledging that the policy could potentially expose his overemployment.
What is overemployment?
Daniel’s career path reflects a broader shift in the job market, with a growing number of people secretly juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet and gain financial freedom.
The overemployment trend gained popularity during the pandemic, when remote work allowed people to take on more tasks and gave them the privacy to hide it from their employers.
Overemployed individuals tend to use a few clever tricks (3) to get away with the feat. This often includes hiding their employment histories with Equifax and LinkedIn so employers can’t see their multiple jobs, keeping it secret from co-workers and ranking their multiple jobs based on priority and importance.
Online forums dedicated to overemployment are also full of advice for successfully juggling multiple jobs. The reddit forum r/overemployed (4) sees more than 335,000 weekly visitors and includes tips and tricks on how to juggle multiple jobs, how to manage responsibilities and what to do when employers become suspicious.
Is the extra money worth the risk?
While the immediate financial perks of working two full-time jobs are obvious, doing so comes with its fair share of risk, as working multiple jobs — and not disclosing it to your employers — can have serious consequences.
It may be legal to work two jobs at the same time, but many employers try to prevent this practice (5) through contracts, non-competition clauses and conflict of interest policies. Violating an employee contract could result in an overemployed worker losing that job, and while doubling income through two jobs can help lead to financial freedom, losing one or both of those jobs could have a negative impact on career growth.
There is also the personal impact of working two jobs. If not properly managed, juggling two demanding gigs can lead to stress and burnout, which could impact an overemployed worker’s personal life as well as their quality of work.
Daniel told Business Insider that working two jobs has left him exhausted — acknowledging that this is the tradeoff for the extra income.
“It seems like every day I’m living just to see the next day,” he told Business Insider. “I think I need a vacation or something, but it’s doable.”
Daniel says his heavy workload and desire to perform his jobs well leaves him feeling exhausted. He also admits the pace is difficult to sustain. Still, he says he wouldn’t give up the extra income.
“I can’t even imagine going back to just a single job,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to the income.”
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Article Sources
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Business Insider (1), (2), (3); Reddit (4); BambooHR (5).
