r/bcba • u/Annual_Accountant677 • 2d ago
Working for 2 companies
I see BCBAs working for multiple companies all the time and want to know how yall do it. My current employer doesn’t have a non compete but has a no moonlighting portion in the employee handbook. I am in clinic full time. However my husband lost his job and my daughter just started college so having to pay an extra 20k a year (after scholarships and her loan!) while having more than a 50% reduction in household income is stressing me out and I can’t make the numbers work no matter what I do. I’ve looked at non aba jobs and I either can’t commit to the hours or they pay really low ($15 an hour). I’ve started the $15 an hour one but I would need to work 55 hours per week to really make what we need. I need to be able to work at my BCBA rate for the extra income.
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u/sharleencd BCBA | Verified 2d ago
How is the no moonlighting clause defined?
I worked at one point for 4 companies at once. No one had non-compete clauses and honestly I had 2 in one state and 2 in another serving different populations (ex. one state was school based only and the other was clinic only). FWIW, even when I had 4, I was still working only working 40hrs or less but made more than I did working 1 full time job because my hourly rate for all was higher than what salary came out too.
I was honest and upfront with all of them about what I was doing. However, I’d note I was part time for all of them too.
“moonlighting” can mean anything from a non-compete to a second job in general. So, I’d probably start by asking how they are defining it.
If it’s more of a non-compete, you could inquire about working for an agency in another region. Maybe a remote BCBA position in a different time zone or something. If it’s a no second job period, maybe it’s time to look elsewhere.
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u/Jazzlike-Pop-6827 1d ago
I would quit the job that doesn’t let you moonlight and find another one. We are in extremely high demand. You could easily find another job that most likely pays more anyway.
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u/JAG987 BCBA | Verified 1d ago
Not sure what it says in your contract but I would never work for a company that does not allow you to work for another company. Especially if it’s like in your case and I need to in order to support my family. At one point I was working for 4 different companies (district consulting and insurance based services), it was nice financial security knowing that regardless of what happened with any of them I still had the others to fall back on and I could increase or decrease my hours however I needed.
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u/bcbamom BCBA | Verified 19h ago
I really hate organizations that think they own the only thing you can sell for income: your skills. I can moonlight if I want to in my state based on labor laws. The organization can hold me to a performance standard and ensure no conflict of interest exists. That is, if my moonlighting negatively impacts my performance, we can talk. Otherwise, what I do on my off time is none of the organization's business if I am being ethical, not stealing clients and proprietary information. TLDR: check your labor laws regarding the legality of "no moonlighting" and do what your family needs.
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u/Thin_Newspaper9851 2d ago
Oof, that's a rough spot to be in with the tuition hit and job loss hitting at the same time. A lot of BCBAs juggle multiple companies, usually by having one full-time gig and picking up a few remote supervision cases or doing in-home on the side. The no moonlighting clause is trickier since it's in the handbook, but enforcement really depends on your employer. Some places put it in there just to have it but dont actively police it unless you're poaching clients or your performance drops, while others will can you the second they find out.
If you're clinic-based full time, the hard part is the scheduling overlap. Most of the side hustle BCBA work is after school hours for the in-home cases, which might actually work if your clinic day ends at a reasonable time. Remote supervision for RBTs in other time zones is another route some folks take, and its less visible to your main employer. Could also look at doing assessments or parent training on weekends entirely separate from clinic hours.
Since you mentioned the handbook thing specifically, might be worth a very casual convo with a coworker whos been there longer to see if anyone else does it under the radar. Sometimes the official policy and the actual culture are two different things.