From designing websites to delivering food, side hustles offer flexibility and sometimes even a creative outlet. Gig Economy Data Hub reported in 2024 that “more than a quarter of workers participate in the gig economy in some capacity.”

But not all bosses are on board with sharing their talent.

Mike Caldwell, executive director of TCU’s Center for Career & Professional Development, said that back-to-office mandates are likely inspired in part by concerns that employees are working for other businesses on company time. We asked Caldwell how to best balance a career with a secondary job.

Is freelance work typically allowed for full-time employees?

My first point of recommendation is to read and review the employee handbook or policy statement. In some cases it may just say that another job cannot interfere. In other cases, there may be a real strict rule against it. I worked at a school previously that had a specific parameter — if you were a full-time employee of the college, you were not supposed to have any outside employment.

Do you think it’s a good policy to let your boss know if you take on a side job?

If you’re in a full-time role, absolutely. I am hearing from more and more employers and organizations that they know that their employees are doing it. The genie is out of the bottle. If you said to your boss, “This is what I’m doing; I’m doing it on weekends only, and I want to make sure there’s no conflict of interest,” everything is on the up and up. There are definitely benefits to that.

What if things are slow at your full-time job — is it ever OK to work on a freelance project during the workday?

I would definitely not recommend it. I’ve heard about people managing and doing multiple jobs when working remotely, sometimes two full-time jobs. I think it’s very important to have that dividing line just to protect yourself and your employer.

“I think it’s very important to have that dividing line just to protect yourself and your employer.”
Mike Caldwell

Wells Fargo laid off several people because they had tracking software for some of their remote employees; the mouse had to be moving, the computer had to be active.

Is it OK to use your work laptop or phone for outside work?

I would keep them separate; a lot of organizations have logging software.

If you’re working with an organization that has a government contract, or it’s a state or federal organization, anything that you do on your equipment is public. So any email you send, any work that you do, any searching — if someone wants to look at it, that is public information.

What are the benefits to taking on a side job?

If you have a full-time role and your side job is giving piano lessons, that might be what you’re really passionate about. Ideally, that’s going to make you more fulfilled, so I think that can be a plus. Writing or publishing can give you really good skills and experience. I know for Uber, people use that as a way to finance their transportation costs.

If you are between jobs, there are benefits to doing some of those things and being able to articulate that in an interview, being able to sell that as a time that you demonstrated initiative. It’s customer service, it’s managing a budget, it’s managing a schedule; it gives you quantifiable examples. It gives you those behavioral responses to an interview question like, “Tell me about a time you handled a difficult situation.”

 — As told to Laura Samuel Meyn