Freelancing on the side/second job?

[Highway 101]

I have a small one-woman side business which I started a few years before I went back to newspapers. I enjoy it too much to give it up, plus I like the extra cash.

If you are going to do a second job, be prepared to do a major balancing act. Since I'm my boss for my "second job" I can do that. Which helps since my hours at the paper I'm at now are so weird. And I mean weird in a good way - I wouldn't know how to deal with a regular 9 to 5 schedule.

I never would have thought Rosie would organize "Passion Parties."

;D (and now ducking for cover and praying for a short grounding)

 

[Rosie]

GROUNDED!

For at least a month.

 

[lono]

I have a small one-woman side business which I started a few years before I went back to newspapers. I enjoy it too much to give it up, plus I like the extra cash.

If you are going to do a second job, be prepared to do a major balancing act. Since I'm my boss for my "second job" I can do that. Which helps since my hours at the paper I'm at now are so weird. And I mean weird in a good way - I wouldn't know how to deal with a regular 9 to 5 schedule.

Does it involve a 900 number and disciplining over the phone?

 

[Rosie]

You can head to your room too!

Now get back to the conversation at hand, which is helping Jay.

 

[slappy4428]

I wouldn't mow a lawn for $15, let alone write a story for that price.

So much for getting yard work done this week...

 

[luckyducky]

I was told by a person at the paper I used to work at that we were not allowed to get second jobs because "it would reflect badly on the paper if our employees had to supplement their income with a second job". I asked because I was thinking of getting a job stocking at a grocery store at night.

I have another friend who did that, too, stocking after her desk shifts at night. After about six months, it was killing her so she decided to quit.

Some of my friends who had them told their bosses, some didn't. As far as I know, none of their papers had no-second-job rules.

 

[RossLT]

I make more as a security guard than I did as a sportswriter

 

[ServeItUp]

Balancing act? When I get off work at the paper (1 a.m.) I have six hours to get to the second job (7-11 a.m.). And when I get off the second job I have five hours to get to the paper. During the five-hour break I have to decide between working out, reading, taking a nap, eating, showering and generally wasting time.

Granted, I don't have that schedule every day; the second job takes hold three days a week, more last year around the holidays. One week last year I pulled 37 hours at the second job right before Christmas. But I'm at a point where one-job days feel like days off and no-job days are like ****ing paradise.

I will say this: However nominally I'm compensated at the second job, it's the first time in my career I'm getting paid for my hours past 40 (which I work at the paper).

 

[mike311gd]

But I'm at a point where one-job days feel like days off and no-job days are like ****ing paradise.

That was pretty neat. It's kind of like a built-up tolerance. At first, when you're doing two jobs, you're extremely tired, and you're not sure you can keep doing it. But that first Sunday you don't work at the paper gives you a burst of energy. And when you've got full days off, you really make the most of them.

 

[BYH]

I make more as a security guard than I did as a sportswriter

Are you hiring?

 

[RossLT]

Yep, the company is always hiring

 

[mike311gd]

Do we have to live in Washington?

 

[RossLT]

Nah, they are nationwide. Told me they are the second biggest security company in the US

 

[StraightEdge]

Sell drugs.

 

[Big Buckin' agate_monkey]

My second job is writing for the local paper ... but I work at a university during the day.

I'll echo Rosie's thoughts on juggling. During my junior year of undergrad, I was taking 15 hours of school, working full-time at the local paper and delivering USA Todays, which took about 25 hours a week. That was a hellish schedule.

Of course, to echo SIU's thoughts, during my senior, when I dropped the USAT route and started working 10-15 hours a week on campus, it felt like a vacation.

Now, I'm not sure I'll ever be OK with just one job. If I have too much time, I feel like I'm wasting it by not doing something productive/earning money.

 

[RickStain]

As soon as the lab processes my drug test, Wal-Mart will call me with my start date. I'm going to be an overnight stocker three nights a week, 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. (with an hour lunch).

The kick in the pants: I'll only make $0.45 less an hour than I do at my newspaper job.

 

[RossLT]

As soon as the lab processes my drug test, Wal-Mart will call me with my start date. I'm going to be an overnight stocker three nights a week, 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. (with an hour lunch).

The kick in the pants: I'll only make $0.45 less an hour than I do at my newspaper job.

Less?? I figured they would pay more.