Gen Z workers embrace ‘polyworking’ amid low wages, rising costs

TRISTAN C. SOLINAP, 23, juggles three jobs to keep up with his financial needs.

-  Almira Louise S. Martinez Reporter

The young professional works as a program manager for public engagement in a local nongovernmental organization (NGO), a creative strategist for an Australian ad agency and a contractual documentation specialist for an international NGO.

Relying on a single paycheck, he said, was never enough.

“Before I got my side jobs, I was living paycheck to paycheck, budgeting every week just to get by,” he told BusinessWorld in a Zoom interview. “After paying the bills, I would have to think twice about whether I could even afford a simple fastfood meal.”

Now, with three jobs, his monthly income has jumped to P70,000 from P20,000, letting him put away savings and make small investments.

“Polyworking,” the practice of holding multiple jobs at once, has become more visible in recent years, especially among younger workers.

Forbes describes it as a “growing trend” in which employees manage several careers instead of sticking to one. Labor Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma in a Viber message said the concept might sound new but is essentially the same as what used to be called multiple job holding.

As a polyworker, Mr. Solinap carefully divides his time between his overlapping roles.

His day begins at 9 in the morning, when he tackles tasks for the ad agency. “Since my ad agency job is a production, it’s more time-bound. I have to meet deadlines everyday,” he said.

The local NGO job, which follows an output-based schedule, gets most of his attention in the afternoons and evenings. “Not much happens in the morning. Our meetings usually start in the afternoon, and if we need to report to the office, it’s typically around lunch or later,” he said.

Balancing two demanding jobs is possible, he said, because one requires more fieldwork while the other is purely online.

Meanwhile, his projectbased part-time job only needs him to submit reports every few months.