Since moving out, I’ve balanced multiple jobs and school. Initially, I racked up as many hours as possible to save and conserve money to repay my student loans. But over time, I realized that working multiple jobs became unsustainable. Balancing a social life was challenging; I was constantly fatigued from work-related stress and barely had time to relax.
When I started my internship in the summer, I finally felt a taste of freedom. I no longer had to work multiple jobs to support myself. In addition to this, I noticed how much my schedule changed. Now, I can spend my free time exploring around the city, catching up with friends, and learning new skills. Working fewer hours led to a better work-life balance for me; I had enough time to rejuvenate and seek support outside of work.
However, my colleagues are still working multiple jobs.
For example, one of my colleagues who worked with me at school currently has three jobs. On the weekdays, they work in an administrative position; throughout the weekend, they work at a residence with children. And sometimes, after their nine-to-five, they pick up front desk shifts at a nearby community center.
Seeing people have to work multiple jobs is disheartening. Working one job is already stressful enough; taking on another job means handling more tasks and requirements for another role. Juggling both roles mentally and physically exhausts you, making it hard to balance everything.
Additionally, working more jobs means less time for yourself.
Instead of taking a break after a workday, some people will have another job to work, sacrificing = hours of socialization time to their employers. When this happens, seeing friends and family frequently becomes much more difficult.
However, for some people, working multiple jobs is the only way to survive. With increasing prices and decreasing wages, the only way to conserve more money and save up is to work more. And for people who have families to provide for, they need to find an efficient way to put food on the table.
As the future of work changes, companies must address this trend.
In many entry-level positions, employees choose to work more jobs to support themselves and seek a promotion. However, companies should not take the blame on the employee. Instead, they should seek a way to reform their system and offer support to the employees as much as possible.
More often than not, employees do not choose to be put in this position. They don’t work multiple jobs because they want to, but because they have to.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
