Editor’s note: In February 2025, Business Insider wrote about a medical professional named “Daniel,” who was secretly juggling two full-time remote jobs and on track to earn about $280,000. (Daniel is a pseudonym, but Business Insider has verified his identity and employment.) Read that story here. In a recent interview, Daniel shared how his overemployment situation has evolved.
When Business Insider spoke with Daniel last year, secretly juggling two full-time remote healthcare jobs was relatively straightforward.
Since then, one employer has required him to come into the office a couple of days each month. The other one is now tracking how he spends his time. To make matters worse, Daniel’s working longer than ever — going from roughly 40 to 50 hours a week across both jobs to as many as 60.
Yet Daniel is still secretly juggling both jobs. In fact, he’s on track to earn roughly $330,000 this year — more than ever before.
“We go to the grocery store, we buy whatever we need, we never tap into credit cards,” said Daniel, who’s in his 40s and lives in Texas. “So it’s kind of surreal to see the struggles around me.”
Daniel’s experience reflects a broader shift in the overemployment movement. In recent years, secretly juggling multiple jobs has become considerably more difficult amid return-to-office mandates, a tougher job market, layoffs, and new employee-monitoring measures.
Yet changing workplace norms have not stopped workers from juggling multiple full-time jobs. Several of them told Business Insider they have simply had to change how they approach the practice.
Some have embraced AI tools to work more efficiently, while others have adapted in other ways.
For workers like Daniel, the financial rewards remain powerful enough to keep them going.
Business Insider is speaking with workers who’ve found themselves at a corporate crossroads — whether due to a layoff, resignation, job search, or shifting workplace expectations.
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Adapting to overemployment’s new challenges
After one of Daniel’s employers began requiring some in-person work, he began bringing his other job’s laptop to the office, carefully squeezing in work there when time allowed.
The arrangement is possible in part because his second job has become much less demanding over time. Additionally, Daniel said some coworkers know he has outside work, which has made him less concerned about being discovered. In his experience, they seem more concerned with the quality of his work than the hours he spends on it.
Other challenges have proved harder to solve.
One employer began requiring workers to manually track how they spend their time. Daniel said he’s delayed complying for as long as possible, because the policy could force him to stretch the truth.
The same employer also conducted layoffs recently. In response, Daniel said he’s worked to maintain a reputation as a strong performer, taking on additional responsibilities and positioning himself for a potential promotion.
This has meant working considerably longer hours in the past year. He said AI-powered medical tools have helped offset some of the added workload, allowing him to complete certain tasks more quickly and prevent his hours from climbing even higher.
Read more about workers who have juggled multiple jobs
The rewards of job juggling — and the tradeoffs
The extra income from job juggling gives Daniel plenty of motivation to persevere through the challenges that arise.
Earlier this year, he purchased a rental property, hoping to eventually have enough passive income to reduce his dependence on full-time work. The additional income has also made it easier to cover his child’s college tuition.
“I can’t even imagine going back to just a single job,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to the income.”
While the financial benefits of job juggling have been substantial, Daniel said it’s come with tradeoffs. His desire to perform well, combined with a heavier workload and the demands of juggling two jobs, has left him at times feeling exhausted. Though he remains committed to the arrangement, he said the pace can be difficult to sustain.
“It seems like every day I’m living just to see the next day,” he said. “I think I need a vacation or something, but it’s doable.”
Do you have a story to share? Reach out to this reporter via email at [email protected] or via Signal at jzinkula.29.
