I’m now in my fourth week of working two jobs. Every Monday and Thursday afternoon, I head to one of my agency’s satellite offices, where I’m paid by the billable hour to provide individual therapy. The other three days, I work 10 hours at my “real” job to make up the time I miss (even though I’m salaried, which is a whole other rant post). I have to say, I’m kind of over the whole thing. Not that I’m quitting, because I’m not, but I didn’t know it would be this hard when I decided to take on a second job.
The good points:
- Doing therapy (in small doses) after a 6-month hiatus has been good for me. After almost three years of dealing exclusively with kids, it’s nice to work with adults again.
- I’m making extra money!
- Doing this has inspired me to find other ways to increase my paycheck, like keeping up with mileage again. I don’t know why I stopped tracking it; I guess I just got lazy. In four days last week, I racked up $56 just for my normal on-the-clock driving!
- I’m more productive in my full-time job because I have less time to get things done during business hours.
- I spend very little because I don’t have time to go anywhere.
The bad points:
- The constant rain and flooding in my area have resulted in a lot of rescheduled appointments at the second job. If people don’t show up, I don’t get paid.
- My son is stressed out because I get home so late. I don’t have much time with him during the week. He’s old enough to understand why we need more money but it doesn’t make it any easier for him.
- I’m utterly exhausted. Fifty hours of work each week + ten hours of driving = destroyed house. I promise myself I’ll catch up on the weekends, but I’m too darn tired!
- I have a hard time winding down when I finally get home, so I end up staying up way too late.
- I don’t have as much time to read and comment on other blogs during the week. Or do anything else.
Overall, I don’t regret my decision, though I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. I also wonder at times whether it’s worth it. The first two weeks, I only billed 5 hours, and I should have 8-9 this time depending on how Thursday goes. Kind of crappy out of a potential 16 hours per pay period. But I know it takes time to build a caseload, and before long I’ll be overrun with appointments, so I’m not too stressed.
So anyway, I’m on the fence about the whole two jobs thing. Maybe it will seem more real this weekend when I get the first paycheck with extra money on it. Or maybe I’ll end up in therapy myself (as if I have time for that!) to deal with the stress! Actually, that would be like a mini vacation at this point…