After being laid off four times in four years, a 30-year-old IT specialist in New York City was desperate for a way to avoid losing his job again. So he decided to try working two full-time jobs at the same time. He’s found a few ways to help him deal with stress.
After being laid off four times in four years, a 30-year-old IT specialist in New York City was desperate for a way to avoid losing his job again. So he decided to try working two full-time jobs at the same time. He’s found a few ways to help him deal with stress.
IT specialist told his story to Business Insider, but the publication does not reveal his real name and uses the pseudonym Reed.
Reed was laid off from his tech job in March 2020. It took him six months to find a new job, but the layoffs started again. His next job lasted less than a month due to the company’s financial difficulties. By December 2023, he had lost his fourth job in just over three years.
After his fourth dismissal, Reed said, he had a moment of epiphany.
«I thought, ‘The only way for me to deal with persistent unemployment is to have two jobs,’» he said.
Reed plans to earn about $280,000 this year, secretly working two full-time remote jobs that pay about $175,000 and $150,000, respectively. He says the extra income is helping him support his partner, who has been unemployed for three years, help his parents pay their mortgage each month, and help his nephew and niece pay for college.
In March 2024, he got his first job, and in December 2024, his second. Among the offers was one from Amazon, but the company announced a mandatory return to offices, so the IT specialist refused. Instead, he chose companies that did not have such requirements.
Although juggling two jobs can be very stressful at times, Reed has found several ways to cope with this stress.
Reed’s typical workweek is about 60 hours, but he does some of his work in the evenings and on weekends.
He gets up earlier than necessary to prepare for the upcoming workday, but makes sure to get enough sleep: according to him, it is easier to cope with stress when he is well-rested.
Additionally, instead of switching between two work laptops every few minutes, Reed tries to focus on one job for an extended period of time before moving on to another.
«I have to take breaks in the middle of the day to be able to switch between two jobs,» says Reed.
He says he has an advantage that many jugglers don’t have: He usually doesn’t have to worry about two meetings happening at the same time. That’s because he usually schedules the meetings he has to attend. He says he blocks out meeting times for one job on the calendar of the other job, which helps him reduce the chances of getting double-scheduled.
Looking ahead, Reed says he has no plans to stop juggling work. He doesn’t see it as a long-term prospect.
«Right now, I’m giving myself three to five years,» he says. «Because burnout is real. It’s going to happen sooner or later.»
