ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Tonight I talked on the phone with my Indian coworker (from the check cashing/payday loan place I used to work at back in the day), and she was mentioning how difficult they are all having it right now due to being short-staffed. I remember this problem well. It was a constant plague on me when I worked there, and it made life really tough sometimes because if there wasn’t anybody else available to cover days, the existing employees needed to do it.

Anyway, she went on to explain that things are going to be really hard for my old boss there in another month or so, because both she and the manager of another store are pregnant and their due dates and maternity leaves line up at exactly the same time. My old boss was a really cool person to work for, and we got along extremely well, so I have to say I really feel for the guy. From talking to my friends who still work for this company, he will have three understaffed stores and two managers going on maternity leave at the same time, and he’ll be having to cover a lot of this stuff himself because there simply won’t be anyone else to do it.

And as she was talking about how horrible their lives would be (and I knew exactly what she meant because I went through it too), the spark of what might be a terribly bad idea fired up in my mind. What if…what if I were to offer to moonlight for them on Saturdays just until both employees were back from their maternity leaves? Apart from having no idea of whether the logistics of this would work out (does my current employer allow moonlighting if it’s just on weekends, would my former employer be comfortable having someone work only one day a week considering all the security clearance stuff involved with people who work with heavy volumes of cash, etc. etc.).

Yet the idea has stuck with me all evening. If I did this, it’s not like it couldn’t work out to a mutually beneficial arrangement. I’d be able to help out some good friends from a job I liked and sometimes still miss, and they’d have the benefit of having someone to cover the Saturday shift without worrying about it being a new employee who had no idea what they were doing. I mean, I used to be a branch manager for them, so I’m pretty sure they know I could handle the pud hourly position that I once clawed my way up from. I don’t really need the money, but I could certainly always use it. I could earmark that entire paycheck solely for paying down the principal on my debts.

If anything materialized with this, it would be temporary. It would be extra cash. And it would probably be a big help to them if there wasn’t some security-related or legal reason that made it impossible.

So why do I feel like I’m being dumb to think of taking on a second job, even for just a few months?

Reasons To Talk To My Old Boss About This:

• Might make the lives of my old boss and other employees I used to be friends with less hellish while people are on their maternity leaves
• Extra money is always nice
• I liked working for the company

Reasons Not To:

• Might not even be possible for security/legal reasons
• My current job might not even allow moonlighting
• Would the $10-12 an hour be worth losing 9 hours of my Saturdays for 3-4 months?
• If it wound up lasting into summer, might interfere with my free time in which I would want to try and take the last course required for my CPA eligibility (although I haven’t checked yet, might not be available until Fall 08)

I can’t freaking believe I am actually considering approaching people with this idea.