Rise in side jobs to make ends meet ‘creates ethical issues’
WORKING from home has led to a boom in “side hustles” with people working two jobs at once, a study has found.
One in five adults said they started a second job at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to a poll from Aviva, the insurance firm.
Two-thirds of this group are still working another job on the side of their main nine-to-five employment, with one in six claiming to earn as much as £1,000 a month on top of their main income and the average side job earning £500 a month.
More than a fifth of those with side jobs make extra cash by selling handcrafted goods, while 12 per cent said they did freelancing on the side of their normal work.
Some 6 per cent of those polled said they had turned to couriering to make extra money, while 4 per cent said they had taken on hours as taxi drivers in their time off.
Some 1.2 million people now work a second job, according to the Office for National Statistics, up from about a million in March 2020. Alistair Mcqueen, of Aviva, said the rise was down to an increase in flexible working, as well as financial instability, since the start of the pandemic, with people using second jobs at home to “make ends meet”.
The firm’s research found close to two in five people working another job used the extra money they earned for day-to-day living expenses, including accommodation, food and clothing.
Octavius Black, of the workplace consultancy Mindgym, said there was a risk that employees who get too involved in their secondary jobs could end up lying to their employers.
He said: “Side hustles are a great way to keep your mind fresh and stay stimulated with something you love.
“But things become harder when it takes over and you start to blur the lines between your working and leisure hours. When that line is crossed, people are then being paid when they are not doing the job they are meant to, which creates an ethical issue. In effect, you end up stealing and cheating the people you are working for.”