Second jobs?

Junkie is right about substitute teaching. Right now, where I am, all of those jobs are going to all of the teachers who have been let go recently.

A few years ago they were so desperate for subs that they were letting some college kids do it.

 

I worked full time at a weekly and part-time at a daily, 50 miles away, taking calls three nights a week. And if you work the second shift, there are day gigs (call centers, seasonal retail) that are options.

 

Get married to a chick with great bennys. Hope she's a looker, but make sure you get the bennys first.

 

I'm going to be working for a couple of weeks in the box office at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Miami beginning next week.

Normally I take off this time from work and spend several days just taking it easy watching the tennis. Favorite time of the year.

But with about an 0.1% chance of surviving my newspaper's expected round of layoffs around June, I figured I would work like a dog for a few days (double shifts next Saturday and Sunday), pocket a few extra dollars and maybe make a couple of connections.

And maybe this will give me something to show USCIS to prove to them that I'm not a lazy person incapable of supporting my wife . . . when we walk into their offices in a few months with me unemployed.

 

I'm gonna pull a rickshaw around Amsterdam and have Kramer and Newman as my bosses. The hell with this shit.

 

I think it's 90 days, and yes, you are right about the 20 hours/week part. I should have mentioned that. But Starbucks is a great place to work for, and they were always very flexible with me because of my full-time schedule. But after four or five months of getting off at 12-12:30 in the morning and going to Starbucks at 7 a.m. four days a week, it took a toll. But free coffee is always good.

 

When online poker was legal, it was a nice, steady, $10-an-hour second job I could do in my underwear. I hope it makes a comeback.

 

It's still not that hard to play, and whether or not it's illegal for the players is a gray area.

But I actually find it more stressful than work.

 

The only two rules I have ever had for second jobs is (1) cash only or a lot of cash and (2) extremely flexible hours.

I have three side jobs now and my goal each week is to get a total of $300 cash out of them and when I reach that, I am done because I don't want to get burned out and I want to have a life.

Some weeks I can do it in 20 hours or less but usually it is more like 20 to 25 hours.

Add to that the 40 to 50 hours I put in at my real job and some weeks I am working 70 to 75 hours -- which is ridiculous that this is what we all have to do in order to have a reasonable life.

And the worst part is I've gotten used to having that side cash rolling in, to pay bills, to add to savings, to buy shit for kids -- and it is almost to the point where we budget for it (it is like an extra $15 K per year cash or something, which helps a great deal) -- so I couldn't stop working so much if I wanted.

 

The newspaper is my second job. Which is, in my experience, the best way to do newspaper work.

 

Well, money really *isn't* everything ... but if you're poor AND miserable, then, yeah it's time to get out.

 

Money isn't everything until you turn around one day and friends of yours who are in better industries and a helluva lot dumber just bought a house, go on an actual vacation once or twice a year and actually have a standard of living. Meanwhile, you're the same age and wondering where you're gonna' come up with the cash for a new suit to go to your cousin Bimbo's wedding in the fall.

Then, it may not be everything, but it's certainly embarrassing.