Locum Evening Work & 2nd Jobs

2nd Jobs/Locum Assignments in the Gig Economy – Is this the future for solicitors? Article by Jonathan Fagan, MD of Interim Lawyers and Ten Percent Legal Recruitment.

Taking second jobs in the legal sector is a perfectly valid way of increasing your take home pay. We regularly see solicitors working part time in one role, acting as an ad hoc consultant for another firm, and at the same time running their own business on the side. This works if you have flexibility with your main job, it does not work at all for someone working full time.

Evening Work for Locums – Great Idea

We were recently approached by a solicitor working full time in a medium sized law firm who had been speaking with a locum on assignment at the practice. The locum had mentioned to this solicitor that it was quite easy to find work to do in the evening and that she ought to think about signing up as a locum in order to benefit from this. She duly signed up with us as a locum, but rang us before speaking to her current employer about this and also asking for a reference.

We were glad she did! I explained that it is incredibly difficult to get work in the evening alongside a full-time job and that her employment contract might even preclude it. Furthermore, if she was to approach her current employer to ask for permission, it might sour her relationship with the business and cause a long-term damage to her career.

Although it seems like an ideal way of getting extra work done for firms, its actually very difficult to source locum assignments for evening work and we rarely see them. A lot of businesses want assistance during the day and don’t particularly like someone working out of hours.

If you are thinking about taking a second job alongside a full time job, you probably firstly need to check your employment contract. Do you need to get permission to undertake any other work? If you need to ask for permission you will need to think whether its worthwhile risking damaging your relationship with your employer. Think about it from the perspective of your employer – how are you going to fit in the hours around your full time work and what effect is your side-hustle going to have on your day job?

Summary

We don’t think it is worth someone in a full time role risking damage to the relationship with their employer to potentially do evening work. There is very little of it around in our experience. If you are considering taking on additional work you may be better considering part time or ad hoc work to give you the time to fit 2nd and 3rd roles in. Or perhaps asking yourself why you want to be working extra hours – is it for the money (can you look around for a higher paid job), or is it because you want to do different types of work (again – would you be better looking for another job). Have you actually got time in the week to fit even more hours of work in, on top of commuting to and from work, being at work and fitting in your current family commitments?