Work flexibility comes at a price
Working two part-time jobs a week gives New Plymouth woman Tricia Gillbanks flexibility but less time to spend time with friends.
Gillbanks is employed as a minivan driver working a total of 35 hours a week, up to seven days a week. She is one of the 195,000 New Zealanders who work two or more jobs, a figure which is on the rise.
For her first job, she drives a van four hours a day – two hours each in the morning and afternoon, at 7.45am and 2.30pm, taking three children with special needs to school from New Plymouth and Inglewood between Monday and Friday.
When she clocks off the afternoon school run, Gillbanks hops in another van to drive oil production workers from New Plymouth to Ha¯wera and back between 5pm and 8pm, four to five times a week.
The latest New Zealand Household Labour Force survey to the June quarter, which is published by Statistics NZ, said on average one in 14 Kiwis now juggle multiple jobs.
The survey said 7.4 per cent worked two or more jobs, up from the 6.1 per cent figure recorded in 2017.
People employed in multiple jobs worked more hours but their pay was similar to those who had one job, the survey said.
The largest demographic who worked multiple jobs were women and Taranaki had one of the highest percentages across all regions of people with more than one form of employment.
In between her work commitments Gillbanks volunteered three times a week at the Riding for the Disabled and she also provided support for her adult son with special needs.
While he does not live with her, Gillbanks takes him to regular, weekly appointments.
Gillbanks once worked fulltime as a meter reader for five years, until she left for personal reasons.
She owns her own house, a small 1880s villa in suburban New Plymouth, where she has lived for the past eight years.
The house was mortgage-free until the floors needed repairing, and she had to borrow from the bank to complete the work, she said.
‘‘The problem with old houses once you start repairing one area you find more to do.’’
Her two jobs add up to a seven day a week/365 days a year commitment, apart from 12 weeks during the school holiday period when the morning and afternoon school run stopped.
Gillbanks said working two part-time jobs gave her flexibility but she had to sacrifice time she spent with friends.
‘‘I miss out on a lot of my social life I once had, where I would go with friends to plays, or movies at night,’’ she said.
‘‘I work two jobs because I have to, not because I can. It is not harder to make ends meet but there is less social down time to enjoy with friends.’’