Balancing multiple jobs — also known as polyworking — or having a side gig isn’t just a passing trend. It’s become a go-to strategy among employees looking to achieve financial stability.
“It’s no longer an anomaly” for employees to have multiple sources of income, said Vicki Salemi, career expert at employment website Monster. “It’s more the norm.”
In fact, nearly three-quarters of U.S. workers said that they either currently have a side hustle (42%) or previously had a side hustle (31%), according to SHRM’s October 2025 Current Events Pulse survey of HR professionals and U.S. workers. Meanwhile, about 5% of U.S. workers hold multiple jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only about 5% of that total said they hold two full-time jobs, though not necessarily during the same work hours.
What does that mean for employers? In some ways, it’s about acceptance: “Employees will continue to express interest in pursuing second jobs and side gigs whether they [work] in person or remotely,” Salemi said. “Employers can’t necessarily stop it, but they can put guardrails around it. It’s a good idea to be proactive to set up policies and a framework.”
In 2026, the focus for employers should be on more than simply acknowledging that employees collecting a second paycheck is a growing trend — it needs to be about taking action on handling the practice.
That attention is needed as polywork and side hustles become more common, driven in part by rising financial stress and economic concerns, as well as the rise of artificial intelligence, which is freeing up time in the workday.
Just 47% of employees feel financially well-off, a drop from the 52% who said so at the start of the year, according to 2025 Bank of America data. Layoff fears have also ticked up, according to outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Having a side gig or a second job may ease employees’ financial concerns. More than half of workers interested in a second job cited the high cost of living as a primary driver, according to 2024 data from jobs site SideHustles.com. For others, polywork might feel like a layoff insurance policy.
Although an extra paycheck can be beneficial for employees, employers need to be on the alert for the downsides of polywork and side hustles, including employee burnout, compliance issues, and cybersecurity risks.
That’s why, experts said, employers need to do two important things when it comes to polywork: Uncover the reasons why employees feel the need to work multiple jobs, and set policies around such practices.
"Communication is key. Having a policy is key. Pay attention to what’s going on. And hold employees, and yourself, accountable."
Jennifer Barnes
founder and CEO of Optima Office, an HR services firm in San Diego, CA
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Nearly three-quarters of U.S. workers said that they either currently have a side hustle (42%) or previously had a side hustle (31%).
October 2025 Current Events Pulse, SHRM.
Uncover the Underlying Cause
Before setting much-needed policies around polywork and side hustles, employers should identify the root causes driving workers to take on these additional gigs. Jennifer Barnes, founder and CEO of Optima Office, an HR services firm in San Diego, said HR leaders and people managers should prioritize introspection. Doing so might unveil gaps in employee satisfaction, pay, and benefits.
Workers who said they have or have previously had a side hustle cited a number of common benefits to the extra work, according to SHRM research, including increased income (90%), enhanced skills or professional development (43%), a greater sense of fulfillment or purpose (36%), and an expanded professional network (26%).
Organizations concerned about the risks of side hustles and polywork should focus on whether workers can meet those needs within their primary job. Employees who feel valued and secure — and believe they’re paid well — are less likely to work another job, Barnes said.
HR would be wise to take stock of their pay and benefits packages regularly. If workers have side gigs “because their current full-time salary doesn’t cover their costs and the cost of living, HR could do an analysis to see if they’re being paid market value,” Salemi explained.
Conducting comprehensive pay analyses and securing additional funds for compensation adjustments can be a complex and resource-intensive process, but experts said it remains a critical step in supporting employee well-being and retention. Employers that face constraints in immediately addressing pay gaps may need to consider more flexible policies regarding outside work or side gigs to accommodate employees’ financial realities until longer-term solutions can be implemented.
Other financial benefits — such as financial wellness programs, budgeting tools, emergency savings accounts, and retirement and health savings account contributions — can be helpful, too, in ensuring that employees don’t need to look for other work.
Employers should also take a look at their professional development initiatives and career ladders.
“Maybe employees pursued a side hustle because they’re bored with their current full-time role,” Salemi said. “Even when they like the company, they may be stuck in a plateau without a clear path to access resources to learn new skills.” In this example, she said, “HR and their boss should clearly articulate career paths, growth, and opportunities to learn new skills and gain new experiences.”
As HR and company leaders craft their polywork policies, Barnes said, they should ask themselves questions like:
- How can we increase engagement?
- Do people want to work here?
- What are employees saying about us?
- Are we paying competitive wages?
- What benefits do we provide, and how well are they utilized?
Answering those questions may provide clarity on why some employees feel the need to work an outside job. Note that introspection shouldn’t be the final stop here; leverage surveys and focus groups to confirm your intuition.
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Setting Up Policies
Managers can try to determine how pervasive polywork is by monitoring employees’ productivity or reviewing time-tracking records, but experts advise employers to put policies in place regardless of what they find.
“They should assume it’s happening and set up necessary guardrails,” Salemi said.
Almost 3 in 10 (29%) HR professionals say their organization has not encountered any problems related to side hustles, according to SHRM research. The most common challenges among organizations that have experienced problems are conflicts of interest with the primary job (38%), scheduling or time management issues (35%), and concerns about misuse of company resources (31%). An organization’s polywork and side-hustle policy should reflect those challenges.
Although polywork and side-hustle policies can and should vary depending on an employer’s goals and tolerances, as well as an employee’s role, common guidance would likely be the same, Salemi explained. That might include:
- Don’t allow employees to work another job during normal work hours (i.e., 9 to 5) but do allow it during their personal time.
- Don’t allow employees to do other work at the full-time employer’s location.
- Don’t allow them to use their company laptop or other equipment to work another job.
- Don’t allow them to work a side hustle that’s unlawful, unethical, or harmful.
Another important piece of the policy puzzle: Ensure employees aren’t doing work for a competitor.
“If you work full time for an accounting firm, you shouldn’t have a side hustle at an accounting firm,” Salemi said. “Working a side hustle as a DJ, however, is completely fine.”
Barnes said her company tells employees they must disclose if they work another position.
“They might say, ‘Hey, I like to host trivia night at various breweries ... after I get off work.’ That’s fine,” she said. “But if somebody were to say, ‘I’ll give you 20 hours a week, but I want to service my own clients in the same field, and my goal is to get more clients and eventually leave to start my own firm,’ that’s probably not going to be successful.”
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Almost 3 in 10 (29%) HR professionals say their organization has not encountered any problems related to side hustles.
October 2025 Current Events Pulse, SHRM
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Acknowledge the Positives
Employers should also review the pros and cons of side work. While there are obvious downsides to the practice, such as burnout risk or productivity problems, there could be positive effects, too. Employers might not want to simply create a blanket policy prohibiting outside work.
Workers with side gigs “may gain new skills on the job that can also be applicable to their full-time job,” Salemi said. Additionally, “their upskilling doesn't have a financial cost for the full-time employer benefitting from their newly acquired or polished skills,” she said, citing multitasking and time management as common areas of improvement.
Employers also need to consider their own balance sheet. If raises aren’t in the cards, that supplemental income could boost employees’ financial well-being and satisfaction, taking away some of the financial pressure on employers.
Side hustles may have been feared as a slippery slope presaging an employee’s exodus, but there’s little evidence to back that up. The majority of HR professionals queried by SHRM’s pulse survey (63%) said that employee retention isn’t negatively affected by side gigs.
Polywork isn’t going away — and employer silence isn’t the way to address its challenges.
“Communication is key. Having a policy is key,” Barnes said. “Pay attention to what’s going on. And hold employees, and yourself, accountable.”
“Communication is key. Having a policy is key. Pay attention to what’s going on. And hold employees, and yourself, accountable.”
Jennifer Barnes
founder and CEO of Optima Office, an HR services firm in San Diego, CA
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