There are numerous reasons those with “day jobs” pick up “side hustles” to add to their daily routine. These reasons include, but are not limited to:
1. The need for extra money
2. The desire to explore a new career
3. The side hustle is truly their passion
I have been to many networking events and panel discussions where the topic of the side hustle has come up. Women who have worked as both top executives and new hires in several different industries have expressed their daily rituals in juggling two or more jobs at the same time. One particular maven, who is well known for both her literary successes as well as her other entrepreneurial feats, expressed that while serving as Editor-in-Chief at a major publication, she also was an author at night, penning her first book. She was careful to mention that she never utilized company time to work on her book, so she saw nothing wrong with pursuing two career goals.
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Though this worked for the maven, every employer is not okay with this, even when your side work is not done on company time. Some employment agreements (not just contracts, but agreements and work policy documents) attempt to forbid full time employees from having second jobs, whether they are entrepreneurial efforts or not. I think this is total and utter bull crap, but it really hones in on the notion that most day jobs want their employees to be focused on one thing and that is the goals and objectives of the company that has hired them.
I have purposely not signed some employment agreements because I did not agree with this language of focusing all of my energy on one job. On the flip side, I have also been “coerced” into signing such agreements just to get my checks that were withheld due to this “missing paperwork.”
