• A Gen X woman is on track to earn nearly $300,000 this year across two full-time remote jobs.
• However, one of her managers asked her to move from Arizona to Texas and work from the office.
• She’s looking for a new remote role to maintain her high earnings and overemployment.

Working two remote jobs simultaneously helped Kelly buy a home and support her children. But one employer’s return-to-office push is threatening her “overemployed” lifestyle.

In 2020, Kelly was working remotely as an engineer for a NASA contractor but felt her salary was insufficient to afford a home she desired in the Los Angeles area. To boost her income, she took on a part-time remote job with another NASA contractor — and didn’t tell either employer she was juggling two jobs. When the part-time role ended six months later, she’d grown used to having the additional income, so she started another remote role.

“Having two remote jobs that were nearly full-time was a lifestyle that I missed,” said Kelly, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but who asked to use a pseudonym, citing a fear of professional repercussions.

This year, Kelly is on track to earn nearly $300,000 secretly working two full-time remote jobs, roughly doubling her income from when she worked one job. The additional income helped her buy a home in Arizona — where she relocated to in 2021 — and, as a single mom, it’s helped her financially support her adult children. What’s more, she said she generally works no more than 40 hours a week across the two roles.

But one of her managers has asked her to relocate to Texas and work from the office a few days a week. If she quits, her income will be cut in half. She said she’ll do whatever she can to continue juggling two jobs.

“I’ve been in a situation where I’m tight on money, and I just don’t want to be in that situation again,” said Kelly, who’s in her late 40s.

Kelly is among the Americans who have secretly juggled multiple remote jobs recently to boost their earnings. Over the past two years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen overemployed workers who’ve used their extra income to afford expensive vacations and weight-loss drugs. To be sure, holding multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. However, many job jugglers have told BI that the financial benefits have generally outweighed the downsides and risks.

Looking for a job while delaying RTO

Even before her employer asked her to move to Texas, Kelly faced some obstacles in her overemployed journey.

In 2023, a couple of years after her part-time role ended, Kelly accepted a new full-time contract position that she worked in addition to her full-time, remote job. However, the new role required her to work in the office a few days a week. She said it was very difficult to juggle both roles, particularly when she worked from the office.

“Every time I had a NASA meeting, I would get in my car, sit in the scorching Arizona sun, use my NASA laptop, and connect to my personal hot spot on my phone,” she said. “After I got home from my local job, I would stay up late to complete my NASA work.”

After six months, Kelly said she left the hybrid job and began looking for a second remote role. In late 2023, she connected with a company that she thought was hiring for positions in Arizona. However, she learned the company was based in Texas and wanted employees who could work from a Texas office a couple of days a week. When the company offered her the job, she declined the offer.

A couple of weeks later, Kelly said the manager for the position she declined called her and said she’d be allowed to work remotely. The manager pushed her to commit to relocating after a year but Kelly said she never agreed to those conditions. She accepted the updated offer and, for the first time, began juggling two full-time remote jobs.

However, over the past year, Kelly has been moved to a different contract within the company and reports to a different manager. She said this manager wants her to move to Texas, using a relocation package that expires in a few months. She said some coworkers have also been asked to move.

Kelly has been traveling to Texas occasionally for the job, but she said she doesn’t want to move there. She likes Arizona, prefers being remote, and can’t juggle two full-time jobs from an office.

“It just limits me when I’m sitting in an office, someone’s over my shoulder,” she said.

For now, Kelly said her plan is to look for a new remote role — or a hybrid position based in her area — and not tell her manager that she won’t be moving. She said she’s interviewing for a few roles.

However, remote roles can be hard to get. Some companies have called workers back to the office at least a few days a week, and the share of hybrid and remote job postings has fallen in recent years from pandemic-era highs.

Kelly said she’s not sure what will happen if she continues to delay her move. If she loses the job, she said she’d be able to rely on the income from her other role — which pays more than $100,000 annually — while she continues her job search.

While balancing two jobs can be stressful, she said she’s learned how to make it work. She records meetings she doesn’t have time to focus on and takes vacations from one job on the rare occasion she has to travel for the other.

“My friends and family always think I’m crazy for doing all of this, but it’s kind of like an adrenaline rush and it makes me stay busy,” she said.

Do you have a story to share about secretly working multiple jobs or discovering an employee is doing so? Contact this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com or Signal at jzinkula.29.