SINGAPORE – With her laptop open, Ms X’s class is in session – except that the school teacher is not holding court in a classroom like she typically does, but working her second job giving tuition to students online.

With a take-home pay of about $3,000 a month as a teacher, Ms X said she has also been working as a full-time tutor for a tuition company since 2020 to make ends meet.

She told The Straits Times she is her family’s sole breadwinner and needs the money from another full-time job to support her young children and elderly parents, who require a caregiver.

“Their medical expenses come up to a few hundred in some months... $3,000 is simply not enough,” she said.

The woman in her early 30s is one of many individuals in Singapore who are “overemployed”. The term, which emerged when the US economy slumped during the pandemic, refers to people who are employed full time in more than one job.

While generations of low-wage workers the world over have held more than one job just to get by, the phenomenon of overemployment refers broadly to white-collar workers. The other distinction: Many take advantage of the flexible or remote working opportunities thrown up by the pandemic to carve out a second career.

Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower published in January 2023 show that 3.1 per cent of the workforce was employed in multiple jobs, on a part-time or full-time basis. This is down slightly from a 10-year peak of 3.5 per cent in 2021.

In September 2022, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said in Parliament that there were 53,200 Singaporeans employed in two or more jobs, on a part-time or full-time basis. Half of them earned a monthly salary of less than $1,500 from each job.

But the phenomenon of overemployment also raises legal and ethical questions about the practice.

The Straits Times is not identifying some of the individuals in this story as they might face repercussions from their employers.

Like Ms X, those who spoke to ST said they took up multiple jobs to make ends meet and earn an extra income, but also said the feat of juggling two jobs requires deft, and sometimes discreet, handling.

Germaine, who works two customer service jobs – one remotely for an online shopping platform and another, also remotely, for a phone company – is doing so to pay for her studies. The 25-year-old said she started working for both companies at around the same time as when she started her university programme, in 2021.

“I am pursuing a part-time degree and plan to pay off my fees in full. I don’t want to take a study loan for it. Working two jobs helps me do that and in future, with my degree, I can secure a better-paying job,” she said.

She manages her workload by alternating her attention between clients of both companies. Germaine said she copes by letting her colleagues, from both companies, pick up customers’ calls first and attends to calls only if nobody else is available.

To make up for not responding to as many calls as her colleagues, she said she helps both teams with the updating of reports and data entry. This arrangement has helped her avoid making errors at work or being caught in a difficult situation where she has to speak to two customers, for different companies, at the same time.

While she admits that it is very tiring to juggle the two roles full-time, she ends both jobs at 6pm on most days, which leaves her with time to focus on her part-time studies. Her social life, which helps her cope with the mental fatigue, is key: She spends at least three evenings a week exercising, having family dinners and meeting friends.

As for Ms X, her two jobs demand a laser-like focus. She starts work in school at 6.45am and ends at about 2.30pm. On some days, she has to stay back for co-curricular activities.

“Free periods in school are not for resting. I use them to mark all my (school) students’ work and complete administrative tasks (for the school),” she added.

Her lessons for the tuition firm, where she gets the bulk of her income, are run on an online videoconferencing platform. The tuition firm considers her a full-time employee as she works five days a week for it.

She ends her workday at 9pm on weekdays, but spends time with her children and parents until 10pm and ensures that she goes to bed by 11pm before starting her routine again the next day at 6am. She understands that health is an important factor in maintaining two full-time jobs and told ST that apart from sleeping enough, she also maintains a healthy diet and does quick exercise routines every morning.

Ethical conflict

While holding down two full-time jobs is not illegal, it might flout the terms of some individuals’ employment contracts. In such cases, those caught could be subject to disciplinary action or fired.

Ms X’s employer, the Ministry of Education (MOE), said that teachers working for the ministry “are not allowed to be concurrently employed by a tuition/enrichment centre”.

“MOE takes a serious view of misconduct by our staff, and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline,” said a spokesman for MOE.

Lawyer S. Suressh, who heads Harry Elias Partnership’s employment practice, said some employers – such as MOE – require exclusive service, or permission to take on additional employment.

He also advised that those who are working two jobs should avoid conflicts of interest. “The employee should not work for a direct competitor of their employer. To do so can be a ground for dismissal,” he said.

This ethical conflict is something that people such as Mr Q, a product manager at a media company, grapple with. He runs his graphic design business without his employer’s knowledge, and is potentially in breach of his contract.

He started working in his primary job in 2020. He tried to make ends meet with his salary for a year before starting his graphic design business in 2021.

“I have to make more money to support my family. My main income is definitely not enough, especially if I have to pay for my children’s education,” he said.

Mr Q, who has two teenage children, takes home slightly less than $3,200 after Central Provident Fund contributions from his primary job. Product managers in Singapore generally make almost twice that amount, according to job-review site Glassdoor.

The man, now in his 40s, was told by his employer that he was offered a lower wage than the market rate because he “only has a diploma” instead of a degree.

He earns more than twice as much as his regular salary by offering private graphic design services under a nickname. He works on those projects when he works from home four days a week. Working from home on two different work laptops allows him to toggle between his primary job and his business with ease.

“The money I make from my primary job goes straight to my savings and the money I make from graphic designing is used for my family expenses, such as my kids’ tuition fees,” he said.

The risks of being overemployed

Legal and ethical issues aside, managing two full-time jobs can be risky, said Mr Jasper Toh, principal consultant of human resources firm Impact Best.

He said some companies use tracking software to monitor employees who work remotely, which could reveal unauthorised secondary employment.

He noted that some employers might take a severe approach in dealing with moonlighters when cases are uncovered.

“In some instances, employers might give little to no notice before firing employees found to be moonlighting. They might even notify prospective employers of these individuals about their moonlighting activities if a character referral is requested.”

Being overemployed could also hurt an individual’s career if it leads to an inability to focus and perform well at work and failure to meet the employers’ expectations.

“Consistently failing to meet an employer’s expectations despite being given sufficient time and guidance to improve could significantly hamper the employee’s career advancement and pay-scale progression,” Mr Toh said.

However, he also noted that “if they are able to produce results, some clients are still willing to close an eye to this situation”.

Some of those overemployed, like Ms X, insist that they give both their employers the best of their services. She said: “I know it looks like I am just making money and I treat both my jobs like a money-making machine.

“But that’s not the case at all. In my school, I have to maintain discipline to complete tasks promptly. I ensure that I mark my students’ work diligently, with not only ticks and crosses but comments, words of encouragement and notes for guidance.

“This is something many of my colleagues working in only one job don’t even do. In fact, some of them often mark work at the last minute and may even have backlogs.”

Despite the challenges and risks, those who juggle two jobs say they are driven to do so because of financial necessity. Those who spoke to ST were unapologetic about being overemployed because they were doing it as a means to survive.

Said Ms X: “I don’t think anybody wants to be in the situation of working two jobs full-time and never having a break from anything. Some of us do it because we desperately need the money to keep our family afloat.”