Side jobs to help workers reduce pressure

Besides working at Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Hanoi), Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam and his wife also maintain a small shop selling milk tea, sweet soup and noodles. The shop's customers are mostly workers.

Mr. Tam has worked at the company for about 20 years. Both husband and wife have seniority, so the total monthly income is more than 20 million VND. However, when his two daughters are of school age, family expenses are also increasing day by day. He and his wife have to find an additional source of income to proactively take care of their children. The small restaurant has therefore become a side job for the couple.

To have goods to sell during the day, work usually starts very early. If the wife works the morning shift, she has to wake up at 4 am to prepare items that can only be used during the day. On days when the couple works different shifts, the time is almost divided between the factory and the store.

One day, his wife finished work at 1:30 PM. Before that, Mr. Tam had to temporarily close the store for about 30 minutes to go to work in the afternoon shift at the company. As soon as his wife got home, she hurriedly changed clothes and was present at the shop.

The business also once seemed like having to give up. In the early days, his wife learned the recipe herself, found space and prepared capital. When the shop had not been operating for long, the COVID-19 epidemic appeared, the store had to stop selling, and the family had to subsidize. After many years of struggling, the job gradually became more stable. The children are older, can take care of themselves and eat, so the couple is less vất vả.

The additional income of a few million VND per month from the restaurant did not completely change the family's life, but helped the couple have an extra amount to take care of their children.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh - an electronic component assembly worker in Thang Long Industrial Park (Hanoi) chose another way to earn extra income.

Having a 3-year-old child, Ms. Hanh only works during office hours. However, not working overtime makes it difficult for her income to increase compared to overtime money like some other workers. Therefore, after working hours, she takes advantage of selling more regional specialties such as vermicelli, dried bamboo shoots or seasonal fruits.

Her customers are mainly people working in the same company and people living in social housing areas.

Every day, after work, she takes advantage of checking orders, answering customers, delivering or sending goods. The work is not too big, but requires posting articles on her personal Facebook page regularly. For seasonal items, she has to proactively find sources of goods, calculate the sufficient quantity to avoid inventory. On average, each month, selling helps her earn about 2 million VND extra.

For a family with young children, 2 million VND is not too much money. But that amount of money helps her have more resources to buy diapers and milk for her children - expenses that seem small but arise every month.

Ms. Hanh does not have much free time. After working at the factory, she takes care of her children and then sells goods. But for her, having an additional income also means that the family's pressure is reduced.

The story of Mr. Tam and Ms. Hanh shows a reality in workers' lives: when salaries from the main job have to be divided among too many expenses, side jobs become a way for them to balance their lives.

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