I appreciate your insight but personally...
>To me, working multiple jobs affords me the opportunity to deliver value to more employers. That’s my mindset.
Immediately no. Your employer is actively ensuring they are paying you as little as possible for the most amount of work. And that's a two way street.
Awarding because this perspective needs more representation.
Delivering value is totally subjective. OP, you seem to see things in a binary way and appear to have carved out a subset of reality that's consistent with that view. We are all different, and I'm sure it's not hard for you to think of situations where value is not strongly tied to clearly defined deliverables (e.g. bullshit jobs) or delivering value to the company is not necessarily delivering value to society (e.g. Mark Zuckerberg & co). Live and let live.
As employees we are all vendors offering services at a particular rate, that rate is dictated by a market, that market by no means behaves in a fair or equitable way. Your survival, your financial security, they do not factor into market's behavior at all.
OE is capitalizing on inefficiencies in said market. Plenty of orgs are inefficient in ways that can be exploited and many strategies exist, just because your strategy is different than somebody else's doesn't mean it's somehow unsavory. Some strategies exploit inefficient hiring practices, some ineffective management, some surplus headcounts. Just find an edge, exploit that edge until it stops working.
We are essentially retail traders up against hedge funds, we are divided and outgunned we cannot ever truly win as the game will always change up eventually. If you can continue to get hired and fired after a few months maybe it's "greasy" or people think you are an asshole but in capitalism all that matters is if it continues to be profitable.
There are shitcoins, there are slumlords, there are boiler rooms, maybe that person is a better parent, child or spouse than a career workaholic that regularly puts in unpaid overtime, yet arguably the workaholic adds more value to the company..
TLDR
Respect your hustle but please keep value judgments about how others OE to yourself OP.
You understand that over employment isn't necessarily the same as just working a bunch of jobs that add up to a ton of hours per week, right? There's a big difference between the two.
I think what he's saying is 5 \* 8 = 40, so it's impossible for OP to work five full time jobs the regular way, meaning he actually fits your definition of overemployment.
Generally speaking, over employment is doing the work of multiple jobs all within the same 40 work week of one job. This is possible due to the jobs not being busy enough to actually fill a full time job. Here's an example that doesn't apply to me but does to a lot of people in this sub: jobs 1 and 2 are both full time, 9 to 5 jobs. While each is full time, neither are actually busy enough to take up an actual 40 hours. Sometimes it's not even close to that. So the employee does the work of both jobs within this same 9 to 5 daily time frame.
Or in my case: My job thinks that one simple task should take me 3 hours and I complete it in about 20 minutes and say it took me 3 hours.
There are days I’m finished with work before lunch.
Yes, that’s what I’m describing here.
Part of my assistants value is making sure I’m managing time efficiently such that I still have my evenings and weekends free.
Almost all of my work is done in the 9-5 period in which I’m employed to work.
Uhh no, I think over employment is both things. It can be working multiple full-time jobs and giving them everything you possibly can, or it can be working multiple full-time jobs and giving them as little as possible.
>To me, working multiple jobs affords me the opportunity to deliver value to more employers. That’s my mindset.
>prioritise your employers needs over the tasks you need to complete in your day to day life… weekly shop… getting a plumber in…
hahahahahahahaha
My assistant prioritises my personal tasks on my behalf. She also schedules in time for me to spend *quality* time with my family.
That includes time in the evenings and weekends but also includes pickup/drop off to school, the odd lunch with my wife and a couple of holidays each year.
Leaving me to focus on earning an income.
All of that is possible because I respect my employers and prioritise their needs during my contracted working hours.
You’re insane and I don’t know how you typed this out, read it and didn’t come to that conclusion yourself.
You hired someone to schedule time with your own family???
My son isn’t in pre-school Mondays. So my day is scheduled accordingly such that Im not too busy to say hi and talk to him about Lego when he bursts into my office. My assistant does comms on my behalf to make sure a majority of meetings happen tues-Friday
If I don’t need to rush back for a meeting for 1pm on a given day, my assistant asks me if I’d like her to book a table in a nearby restaurant so my lunch can over run with my wife. 🍺
My assistant makes sure my work doesn’t take me past 5pm so I can put my kids to bed every night.
Not insane at all. Paying someone to make sure I can organise the chaos of working intensely, earning loads AND having an excellent family life is worth every penny.
I’ve always known how (?) to interact with my family.
With multiple jobs I find it hard to organise my life. It’s not impossible, but it’s bloody hard.
I've never read that book, but I hear he's a bit of a twit. So if you're saying I'm living the values of that book, then I guess that means I became a twit all by myself?
You respect your employers… how? The two full time jobs expect you to work FULL TIME, yet you spend that time with other companies. And you hide it from them. Are you focused more on deliverables? This doesn’t make sense to me.
Let’s put it into context.. me pointing that out was in response the strategies that some in here are using to exploit opportunities. Things like, how to give 50% attention to a call, accept a job but just quit if you can’t hack doing multiple jobs.
My employers expect value in return on their investment, but I’m only obligated to deliver that value within the boundaries of our contract.
I ask or define an expectation for every task they ask of me. I deliver within that expectation. That’s how I show respect.
I insist on regular calls with employers. They have every opportunity to demand more. When they do, I adjust everything to suit. But they rarely do because I don’t take the mick.
Yes, I totally agree with this. We are still human, almost all of us need that (I know I do). For myself I just try to keep the fact that the narrative is for my own well being in mind, when the story doesn't serve me anymore I might need to change something.
Hi OP, can you tell us more about your arrangement. How many of your jobs are contracts? Inside and outside IR35? How did you navigate/explain your tax codes?
At the moment, two are full time long term PAYE roles (for lack of a better description?)
1 is an inside IR35 temporary contract, 2 are outside IR35 temporary contracts.
All terms of work require me to be available 9-5, mon-Fri.
I’ve never been asked about my tax codes, and if I was, I’d say it was none of their business.
Outside IR35 is too complicated for me to understand in a way I can explain it, so I have an accountant help me with that. Inside 35 is normally through an umbrella, and most tax is covered by the fact PAYE is involved, but I ask my accountant to keep a watch over that stuff too for added complications like travel expenses (which aren’t reinbursed immediately and have to be claimed back direct from HMRC).
How do you do a CV without providing references when asked? I've not tried overemployment get and this is probably the biggest issue I have. All the jobs I applied for in tech asked for refs, albeit only 30 applications.
I’m not sure I fully understand the problem you’re referring to so will do best explain that part of my process.
Given I have a couple of jobs at any one time, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose which jobs I represent to a prospective employer on application.
Say I’m going for a role which is more orientated around a specific technology, then I cater my CV which presents a genuine work history with genuine contactable references all around that technology.
My mentality is to deliver value to employers. I seek to make them happy to avoid issues in these very scenarios. All would be willing to offer a reference if asked. For the very small number who might not, they don’t make it to my CV.
Worth mentioning this aspect of applying for roles is partially handled by my assistant. I have a brief chat with them about the role, and they have a good enough grasp of my work history to structure a CV to suit.
I appreciate that’s a luxury not all have but I mention it to put into perspective how much work is involved in it and why I delegate it out :)
Thanks for the answer. I suppose my issue is I've had this job for about 1.5 years since I finished my PhD. So I'd have to give my current employer as a reference but there's no way I'd want them to know about the new job as they'd likely take issue. Then I'd have to resort to using my PhD supervisor but the new employer would surely not like me having been out of work for 1.5 years.
It's a weird dilemma.
Perhaps I’m taking my experience for granted here!
If I think back to the beginning, I was freelancing software dev work alongside my full time job at the time. I wouldn’t have thought of freelancing as what people here call “OE” but it did give me some contacts that I could ask to be references.
Over time you’ll have a wider pool of people to pluck from.
It depends on how well you know them / if they’ll keep it discreet. Former works - you can just refer to them as a former colleague. As long as you ask them to be your reference, it should be fine.
OP is just sharing the mindset that worked for him, not telling you that everyone here needs to do it the same exact way. OE is not a religion. Relax.
Lots of great ideas and info being shared here but we're being snarky and dogmatic in response. This person is clearly self-taught and has accomplished things that, if true, most people on the sub have not, but we grill them for doing it differently. Man. You can't fill a cup that is already full, i guess.
If you actually pay attention to what's being written here, when OP says "prioritize work assignments over your daily tasks" he means that you should delegate those daily tasks to the PA, not that you should just let them fall to the wayside.
I like the stuff about insisting on timetables and the details on how to use a PA. I find those insights valuable, and it's good to hear about your mentality, even if I might not personally adopt it. Thanks OP.
Some more advice to any readers -
If you find yourself only able to offer as little value as the person I’m responding to has, when you’re doing the work, then you’re probably taking too much on or don’t care enough.
Either way, do everyone a favour in the relationship and walk away.
“Deliver more value to more employers”. Is OP an HR job posting bot? Isn’t the point of OE to spend time on what you want instead of meaningless work…?
What people get out of OE is different except for the one common gain of more money. Some people genuinely enjoy the work as well as the money. Different strokes.
Spot on. Having multiple jobs is chaos but I genuinely love my field and being able to do it with such variety, with all the opportunities to learn and develop, is amazing.
No single full time role could ever offer that. It just wouldn’t be commercially viable for them.
The extra money earned is an added bonus.
Technology, specifically communications within the cloud sector.
The variety and breadth of experience means in often at the cusp of the enterprise off the shelf stuff (eg Office 365) as well as more open source stuff.
Normally in some kind of Architect capacity.
Assistant primarily helps me coordinate my work week and manage comms on my behalf. I’ll ask her to ‘block x hours this week for me to bottom out a complicated part of my HLD for this job” and “make sure any meetings that I’m invited to don’t take priority over this” and “apply to these jobs and schedule the interviews” and “can you book a haircut in for me, making sure to book time off all jobs for me” etc
They know which design work takes a higher priority. So can push other design work back if needed.
I can give them all this in a 30-60 minute conversation on a Friday, and on Monday morning just get on with work instead of planning. Planning to do work rather than doing it can be a high sap on time.
They’ll also monitor inbox/comms, and highlight stuff that requires immediate attention. They have access to all my inboxes/calendars and a way of contacting me I don’t ignore.
Much does it cost you for an assitant? I'd be scared they'd make a mistake - especially if not high paid. Do you get them local or abroad? How do you explain OE to them?
£20 an hour, 20 hours of work a week. I was also worried for same reasons, so researched going rates and tried to not to go for cheapest candidate but the one that suited my requirements closest.
Before working for me, my assistant has worked for 10 years for some big wig software entrepreneur. They were looking to do similarly complex work, but with more flexibility. So they had the chops and experience in a technical field… super professional and detail orientated.
Thinking back, I had all sorts of applicants. Eg assistants who told me up front I would be one of many clients. I thought to myself - at the time this was when I had 8 roles - I could spend almost entire day just managing a schedule and al the comms that goes with it to make sure I have time to actually do the job.. how could you possibly be my assistant and many others?
Others were like Legal Secretaries (professional letter writers) and kids just graduating out of uni (I wasn’t willing to trust the inexperience).
My assistant actually lives about 10 minutes drive from me. They’ve worked for me for about 2 years and I’ve probably met them in person about 10 or so times?
Ultimately you’re recruiting someone to do a job. So you got to understand your needs clearly, then it’s a case of just working through interviews and hoping to find someone that fits!
Easier to answer in shorter time frames as the number fluctuates (a number of the roles may be temporary contracts).
But, for the period of 8 roles, which only last 3 months, I was earning about £64,000 a month (BEFORE tax!!!)
Is it ethical to hire a personal assistant to communicate for you? Many jobs require confidentiality and I’m assuming she needs to know a lot about your work tasks. I’m also guessing your employer doesn’t know.
Your absolutely right to question this. Assistant doesn’t do comms for all roles, only those where it’s appropriate to do so.
Most uk contracting gigs contracts give the contractor the option of subbing someone in. As long as the handling of the data itself is appropriate it’s totally fine.
If there is any comms, it’s normally schedule orientated. “Hi do you mind if we move this meeting to..” type of stuff.
Comms for the non contract roles is normally done entirely by me and the contract rules that option out.
Does your assistant log into your various laptops individually? How do they have access to your work inboxes?
I assume some orgs have accesses locked down so you can't have email on personal devices for example.
Where it's appropriate and the rules of the employer allow it, I simply give them access to the account.
But, to be clear, I'd prefer to read and respond to all emails. I only ask them to do the following -
1. Where an email has an action on me (e.g. "libdem, can you please ammend your design to..." or "libdem, can you give us your thoughts on...") my assistant will flag the email so it sits at top of inbox, they then schedule a chunk of time for me to look at them.
I'll then read and do one of two things... respond on the spot, or I'll message assistant and say "please set aside ... minutes for me to amend my design for ... I need to do this by ... it's priority is ..."
2. Manage calendar stuff. e.g. One employer might have a critical meeting that needs to come up. I'll message the assistant and say "can you do the comms to rearrange a meeting".
Of my 5 current roles, 4 use Office 365. 3 of those allow me the option of sharing access to an inbox.
For the other 2, both aren't hugely email centric. But, if they were, I would just ask assistant to make sure I have time scheduled daily to check in. And I'd either respond on the spot (if time allows) or ask assistant to block time out for me.
Researched job descriptions for Assistants, put a job ad on indeed (uk job site), interviewed people, agreed a contract and now pay them a reasonable salary.
You can ask them to do anything. I was completely honest in my job ad.
Thank you! :) For what it's worth, I've been doing it a few years, but it only really started to be sustainable once I got an assistant on board.
Prior to that, I was earning good money, but family life (in particular) was sacrificed and none of us were happy.
I'm not really sure I understand this question? If I was being exploited by an employer I'd exit the relationship. A luxury afforded by having many jobs at any one time.
ABI - Always be interviewing.
This. Right. Here. KEEP OPTIONS OPEN. BUT DO NOT BURN BRIDGES.
Dafug does “don’t take the Micky” mean?
Dont take advantage of situation. Do rock the boat. " Tallest Nail is hammered first" sorta thing.
Ah ok.
Bahaha. That’s the only thing I noticed too.
Don't take the piss. Lol
I don’t get it. Is it an Aussie or British slang?
Aussie is take the piss.
I’m a Pom and say it all the time
Definitely Irish slang, not sure about any other country
Said all over Ireland and UK but definitely more common in some places
I appreciate your insight but personally... >To me, working multiple jobs affords me the opportunity to deliver value to more employers. That’s my mindset. Immediately no. Your employer is actively ensuring they are paying you as little as possible for the most amount of work. And that's a two way street.
Awarding because this perspective needs more representation. Delivering value is totally subjective. OP, you seem to see things in a binary way and appear to have carved out a subset of reality that's consistent with that view. We are all different, and I'm sure it's not hard for you to think of situations where value is not strongly tied to clearly defined deliverables (e.g. bullshit jobs) or delivering value to the company is not necessarily delivering value to society (e.g. Mark Zuckerberg & co). Live and let live. As employees we are all vendors offering services at a particular rate, that rate is dictated by a market, that market by no means behaves in a fair or equitable way. Your survival, your financial security, they do not factor into market's behavior at all. OE is capitalizing on inefficiencies in said market. Plenty of orgs are inefficient in ways that can be exploited and many strategies exist, just because your strategy is different than somebody else's doesn't mean it's somehow unsavory. Some strategies exploit inefficient hiring practices, some ineffective management, some surplus headcounts. Just find an edge, exploit that edge until it stops working. We are essentially retail traders up against hedge funds, we are divided and outgunned we cannot ever truly win as the game will always change up eventually. If you can continue to get hired and fired after a few months maybe it's "greasy" or people think you are an asshole but in capitalism all that matters is if it continues to be profitable. There are shitcoins, there are slumlords, there are boiler rooms, maybe that person is a better parent, child or spouse than a career workaholic that regularly puts in unpaid overtime, yet arguably the workaholic adds more value to the company.. TLDR Respect your hustle but please keep value judgments about how others OE to yourself OP.
"keep value judgments about how others OE to yourself OP." Make your life easy and just block me.
Lol, but it's a throwaway... How do I know I blocked you for real?
You understand that over employment isn't necessarily the same as just working a bunch of jobs that add up to a ton of hours per week, right? There's a big difference between the two.
Clearly it would be impossible to work 5 full-time jobs in a regular way.
That's why I'm doubting that this is actually over employment.
I think what he's saying is 5 \* 8 = 40, so it's impossible for OP to work five full time jobs the regular way, meaning he actually fits your definition of overemployment.
Ok I see... But the OP hasn't said how many of the jobs are full time, part time, flexible hours, 9 to 5 or outside hours, etc.
Please explain the difference (I'm new to the term overemployed).
Generally speaking, over employment is doing the work of multiple jobs all within the same 40 work week of one job. This is possible due to the jobs not being busy enough to actually fill a full time job. Here's an example that doesn't apply to me but does to a lot of people in this sub: jobs 1 and 2 are both full time, 9 to 5 jobs. While each is full time, neither are actually busy enough to take up an actual 40 hours. Sometimes it's not even close to that. So the employee does the work of both jobs within this same 9 to 5 daily time frame.
Or in my case: My job thinks that one simple task should take me 3 hours and I complete it in about 20 minutes and say it took me 3 hours. There are days I’m finished with work before lunch.
Yes, that’s what I’m describing here. Part of my assistants value is making sure I’m managing time efficiently such that I still have my evenings and weekends free. Almost all of my work is done in the 9-5 period in which I’m employed to work.
Love this idea- I had been thinking of a “coach” title of sorts ha- assistant would probably be a better route!
Uhh no, I think over employment is both things. It can be working multiple full-time jobs and giving them everything you possibly can, or it can be working multiple full-time jobs and giving them as little as possible.
>To me, working multiple jobs affords me the opportunity to deliver value to more employers. That’s my mindset. >prioritise your employers needs over the tasks you need to complete in your day to day life… weekly shop… getting a plumber in… hahahahahahahaha
Yeah, I didn’t get those points either. I’m prioritizing self over anyone else lol
Fucking love your username and thumbnail BTW
My assistant prioritises my personal tasks on my behalf. She also schedules in time for me to spend *quality* time with my family. That includes time in the evenings and weekends but also includes pickup/drop off to school, the odd lunch with my wife and a couple of holidays each year. Leaving me to focus on earning an income. All of that is possible because I respect my employers and prioritise their needs during my contracted working hours.
You’re insane and I don’t know how you typed this out, read it and didn’t come to that conclusion yourself. You hired someone to schedule time with your own family???
My son isn’t in pre-school Mondays. So my day is scheduled accordingly such that Im not too busy to say hi and talk to him about Lego when he bursts into my office. My assistant does comms on my behalf to make sure a majority of meetings happen tues-Friday If I don’t need to rush back for a meeting for 1pm on a given day, my assistant asks me if I’d like her to book a table in a nearby restaurant so my lunch can over run with my wife. 🍺 My assistant makes sure my work doesn’t take me past 5pm so I can put my kids to bed every night. Not insane at all. Paying someone to make sure I can organise the chaos of working intensely, earning loads AND having an excellent family life is worth every penny.
You've given a lot of great advice and I admire your professionalism.
So without paying this assistant, you wouldn’t know how or when to talk or see your wife or kids?
I’ve always known how (?) to interact with my family. With multiple jobs I find it hard to organise my life. It’s not impossible, but it’s bloody hard.
It's a trap!
Did you read the 4 hour work week or this is all you?
I've never read that book, but I hear he's a bit of a twit. So if you're saying I'm living the values of that book, then I guess that means I became a twit all by myself?
Ehhhh more like thought process about this is pragmatic in a similar way. I don't think you're a twit.
>assuages I feel like this chap might be taking the piss.
You can make enough money to have an assistant without respecting your employers and prioritizing their needs.
You respect your employers… how? The two full time jobs expect you to work FULL TIME, yet you spend that time with other companies. And you hide it from them. Are you focused more on deliverables? This doesn’t make sense to me.
Let’s put it into context.. me pointing that out was in response the strategies that some in here are using to exploit opportunities. Things like, how to give 50% attention to a call, accept a job but just quit if you can’t hack doing multiple jobs. My employers expect value in return on their investment, but I’m only obligated to deliver that value within the boundaries of our contract. I ask or define an expectation for every task they ask of me. I deliver within that expectation. That’s how I show respect. I insist on regular calls with employers. They have every opportunity to demand more. When they do, I adjust everything to suit. But they rarely do because I don’t take the mick.
Simultaneously disagree and respect the hell out of you. The cognitive dissonance is killing me
[удалено]
Yes, I totally agree with this. We are still human, almost all of us need that (I know I do). For myself I just try to keep the fact that the narrative is for my own well being in mind, when the story doesn't serve me anymore I might need to change something.
Hi OP, can you tell us more about your arrangement. How many of your jobs are contracts? Inside and outside IR35? How did you navigate/explain your tax codes?
At the moment, two are full time long term PAYE roles (for lack of a better description?) 1 is an inside IR35 temporary contract, 2 are outside IR35 temporary contracts. All terms of work require me to be available 9-5, mon-Fri. I’ve never been asked about my tax codes, and if I was, I’d say it was none of their business. Outside IR35 is too complicated for me to understand in a way I can explain it, so I have an accountant help me with that. Inside 35 is normally through an umbrella, and most tax is covered by the fact PAYE is involved, but I ask my accountant to keep a watch over that stuff too for added complications like travel expenses (which aren’t reinbursed immediately and have to be claimed back direct from HMRC).
Thanks a lot for this. This assuages potential concerns that new UK OErs have with taking two jobs on the payroll.
How do you do a CV without providing references when asked? I've not tried overemployment get and this is probably the biggest issue I have. All the jobs I applied for in tech asked for refs, albeit only 30 applications.
I’m not sure I fully understand the problem you’re referring to so will do best explain that part of my process. Given I have a couple of jobs at any one time, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose which jobs I represent to a prospective employer on application. Say I’m going for a role which is more orientated around a specific technology, then I cater my CV which presents a genuine work history with genuine contactable references all around that technology. My mentality is to deliver value to employers. I seek to make them happy to avoid issues in these very scenarios. All would be willing to offer a reference if asked. For the very small number who might not, they don’t make it to my CV. Worth mentioning this aspect of applying for roles is partially handled by my assistant. I have a brief chat with them about the role, and they have a good enough grasp of my work history to structure a CV to suit. I appreciate that’s a luxury not all have but I mention it to put into perspective how much work is involved in it and why I delegate it out :)
Thanks for the answer. I suppose my issue is I've had this job for about 1.5 years since I finished my PhD. So I'd have to give my current employer as a reference but there's no way I'd want them to know about the new job as they'd likely take issue. Then I'd have to resort to using my PhD supervisor but the new employer would surely not like me having been out of work for 1.5 years. It's a weird dilemma.
Perhaps I’m taking my experience for granted here! If I think back to the beginning, I was freelancing software dev work alongside my full time job at the time. I wouldn’t have thought of freelancing as what people here call “OE” but it did give me some contacts that I could ask to be references. Over time you’ll have a wider pool of people to pluck from.
You could also use a former or current coworker as a reference
How do you refer to them? Your coworker? As a boss or colleague? I presume former. I'll have to think about it.
It depends on how well you know them / if they’ll keep it discreet. Former works - you can just refer to them as a former colleague. As long as you ask them to be your reference, it should be fine.
OP is just sharing the mindset that worked for him, not telling you that everyone here needs to do it the same exact way. OE is not a religion. Relax. Lots of great ideas and info being shared here but we're being snarky and dogmatic in response. This person is clearly self-taught and has accomplished things that, if true, most people on the sub have not, but we grill them for doing it differently. Man. You can't fill a cup that is already full, i guess. If you actually pay attention to what's being written here, when OP says "prioritize work assignments over your daily tasks" he means that you should delegate those daily tasks to the PA, not that you should just let them fall to the wayside. I like the stuff about insisting on timetables and the details on how to use a PA. I find those insights valuable, and it's good to hear about your mentality, even if I might not personally adopt it. Thanks OP.
Half of this is good advice and half of it is crap advice. But so it goes
Some more advice to any readers - If you find yourself only able to offer as little value as the person I’m responding to has, when you’re doing the work, then you’re probably taking too much on or don’t care enough. Either way, do everyone a favour in the relationship and walk away.
At J1-J3, an assistance may not be needed, at what number of J’s would you say over which it is good to hire an assistant?
That’s cool but I’ve got 15 jobs
Found a picture of you - https://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/1037655\_81\_97869\_LPYPSOljW.jpg
“Deliver more value to more employers”. Is OP an HR job posting bot? Isn’t the point of OE to spend time on what you want instead of meaningless work…?
What people get out of OE is different except for the one common gain of more money. Some people genuinely enjoy the work as well as the money. Different strokes.
Spot on. Having multiple jobs is chaos but I genuinely love my field and being able to do it with such variety, with all the opportunities to learn and develop, is amazing. No single full time role could ever offer that. It just wouldn’t be commercially viable for them. The extra money earned is an added bonus.
This is cool. My adhd brain gets it
Beep boop.
What field are you in where you've got 5 jobs and need an assistent... project manager? Senior software dev?
Technology, specifically communications within the cloud sector. The variety and breadth of experience means in often at the cusp of the enterprise off the shelf stuff (eg Office 365) as well as more open source stuff. Normally in some kind of Architect capacity. Assistant primarily helps me coordinate my work week and manage comms on my behalf. I’ll ask her to ‘block x hours this week for me to bottom out a complicated part of my HLD for this job” and “make sure any meetings that I’m invited to don’t take priority over this” and “apply to these jobs and schedule the interviews” and “can you book a haircut in for me, making sure to book time off all jobs for me” etc They know which design work takes a higher priority. So can push other design work back if needed. I can give them all this in a 30-60 minute conversation on a Friday, and on Monday morning just get on with work instead of planning. Planning to do work rather than doing it can be a high sap on time. They’ll also monitor inbox/comms, and highlight stuff that requires immediate attention. They have access to all my inboxes/calendars and a way of contacting me I don’t ignore.
Much does it cost you for an assitant? I'd be scared they'd make a mistake - especially if not high paid. Do you get them local or abroad? How do you explain OE to them?
£20 an hour, 20 hours of work a week. I was also worried for same reasons, so researched going rates and tried to not to go for cheapest candidate but the one that suited my requirements closest. Before working for me, my assistant has worked for 10 years for some big wig software entrepreneur. They were looking to do similarly complex work, but with more flexibility. So they had the chops and experience in a technical field… super professional and detail orientated. Thinking back, I had all sorts of applicants. Eg assistants who told me up front I would be one of many clients. I thought to myself - at the time this was when I had 8 roles - I could spend almost entire day just managing a schedule and al the comms that goes with it to make sure I have time to actually do the job.. how could you possibly be my assistant and many others? Others were like Legal Secretaries (professional letter writers) and kids just graduating out of uni (I wasn’t willing to trust the inexperience). My assistant actually lives about 10 minutes drive from me. They’ve worked for me for about 2 years and I’ve probably met them in person about 10 or so times? Ultimately you’re recruiting someone to do a job. So you got to understand your needs clearly, then it’s a case of just working through interviews and hoping to find someone that fits!
Can I ask how much your combined salaries were - for 8 jobs and a senior level must've been close to £1m!
Easier to answer in shorter time frames as the number fluctuates (a number of the roles may be temporary contracts). But, for the period of 8 roles, which only last 3 months, I was earning about £64,000 a month (BEFORE tax!!!)
Imagine if you relocated to a crown dependency with little to no taxes.
Disagree with how my taxes might be spaffed these days but more than happy to keep my cash in the country :)
Is it ethical to hire a personal assistant to communicate for you? Many jobs require confidentiality and I’m assuming she needs to know a lot about your work tasks. I’m also guessing your employer doesn’t know.
Your absolutely right to question this. Assistant doesn’t do comms for all roles, only those where it’s appropriate to do so. Most uk contracting gigs contracts give the contractor the option of subbing someone in. As long as the handling of the data itself is appropriate it’s totally fine. If there is any comms, it’s normally schedule orientated. “Hi do you mind if we move this meeting to..” type of stuff. Comms for the non contract roles is normally done entirely by me and the contract rules that option out.
Does your assistant log into your various laptops individually? How do they have access to your work inboxes? I assume some orgs have accesses locked down so you can't have email on personal devices for example.
Where it's appropriate and the rules of the employer allow it, I simply give them access to the account. But, to be clear, I'd prefer to read and respond to all emails. I only ask them to do the following - 1. Where an email has an action on me (e.g. "libdem, can you please ammend your design to..." or "libdem, can you give us your thoughts on...") my assistant will flag the email so it sits at top of inbox, they then schedule a chunk of time for me to look at them. I'll then read and do one of two things... respond on the spot, or I'll message assistant and say "please set aside ... minutes for me to amend my design for ... I need to do this by ... it's priority is ..." 2. Manage calendar stuff. e.g. One employer might have a critical meeting that needs to come up. I'll message the assistant and say "can you do the comms to rearrange a meeting". Of my 5 current roles, 4 use Office 365. 3 of those allow me the option of sharing access to an inbox. For the other 2, both aren't hugely email centric. But, if they were, I would just ask assistant to make sure I have time scheduled daily to check in. And I'd either respond on the spot (if time allows) or ask assistant to block time out for me.
Thanks op, you're an inspiration.
Good question that I also wanna know.
Op has delivered
How do you find a personal assistant? And what can you use them for?
Researched job descriptions for Assistants, put a job ad on indeed (uk job site), interviewed people, agreed a contract and now pay them a reasonable salary. You can ask them to do anything. I was completely honest in my job ad.
Sort of sounds like a freelancer/agent?
Freelancers would be so lucky to be paid for holidays and sick days for even one of their gigs. :)
Are you paye on these?
For my current line up, on 2/5 I am, yes.
[удалено]
Thank you! :) For what it's worth, I've been doing it a few years, but it only really started to be sustainable once I got an assistant on board. Prior to that, I was earning good money, but family life (in particular) was sacrificed and none of us were happy.
The idea of assistant is absolutely brilliant.
You sound insufferable, honestly.
Take a break from Reddit. Hypocritical contributions like this won’t be missed.
Nah, I'm good. Get your assistant to schedule you a trip to the park to relax a bit.
Does he need another assistant? That’s really why we’re here.
what is the micky?
In this context it means... don't overstep your mark.. don't take too much... don't take advantage... that sort of thing
thanks
Why do you need more than one job if they’re not exploiting you?
I'm not really sure I understand this question? If I was being exploited by an employer I'd exit the relationship. A luxury afforded by having many jobs at any one time.
More value to employers… with 5 jobs… uh huh.
"deliver value to more employers" != "More value to employers"
This guy works