"Sunlighting": the new work trend

why not cubelighting?

Business is slow. As a result, I don't have much to do. I m still being paid a full time job. But I get into office late and get out early. I am tempted to not go into office at all! At least, I could save on gas money

Sorry, sunlighting sounds like something you do to your hair to get that 'sun-kissed' look Daylighting sounds like something scary, like it will scare the living daylights out of you. We need another name - graylighting? (uh oh, sounds like it's for seniors) worklighting? joblighting? They all sound pretty bad, I admit. But the idea is fairly rampant, I think. The question applies more to salaried employees than freelancers like yourself. When you take a freelance job, you guarantee to get it done by a certain time for a certain fee - no rules against doing more than one thing during that period. But when a salaried employee sits at a desk, typing away at something - well, that's different. Sure, no one knows what you're doing, but is it ethical? (she says, as she sits at her desk typing long blog comments)

[...] Moonlighting is for aspiring actors/musicians/loin-pay-er-off-ers. Sunlighting (or Daylighting, depending on where you read it) is when desk-job 9-5ers who are used to their dinners out and over-priced, under-sized apartment take on extra jobs they do at their regular job to stay ahead of the Economy Tsunami. So, what about it? Do you sunlight? – Work in Progress [...]

I just finished writing up a freelance project while still on the clock at my other writing job when I came across this. It feels like cheating on my employer. However, I justify it loosely by noting that I have downtime between deadlines. At least I'm still writing. I know. It's weak.

Unfortunately its not just for those who want to maintain a certain lifestyle but for those of us just out of college who are struggling to survive in a high cost of living/low paying world. It's not the luxeries I'm talking about here- its the rent, the food, the car payments. I worked two jobs, often working over 100 hours a week between the two to make ends meet. Sometimes Clients from my night job call and email me during the day and I have to respond, even though I'm at my "real job" It's a sad truth that a lot of recent college grads are getting full time employement (if we are even that lucky) that pay salaries that simply can't be lived on. If I had one kid, I would fall below the poverty line with my current full time salary. I work a second job in order to keep myself from being one paycheck from the streets and maybe be able to retire one day. I am envious of those who appear to have full time jobs with "those lifestyles" but quite frankly I don't know anyone under the age of 30 right now with anything like it. I was class of 2007 from college and I thought that life would be a little bit easier at this point for money. I think its an even sadder commentary on where our society is headed that working a second job and "sunlighting" is necessary not just to maintain a lifestyle, but to survive at all.

Sunlighting or Moonlighting, whatever you decide to call it - I am all for it. Especially when one is competent enough to get more than one job done in the same time as it takes others to do just one.