“It’s true that I can be very busy and it’s true that it can be too much sometimes,” says Omar Rondon, who works multiple jobs and engages in creative side gigs, all while supporting his family in his native Venezuela. “But at the same time, all this work is stuff that I enjoy a lot,” he adds. Here’s how he balances jobs in community work, caregiving, and videography and photography — all with a baby on the way.
Omar Rondon, 29, project manager
I’m originally from Venezuela, but I have been living here since 2019. I have multiple jobs. For my main job, I work at a félagsmiðstöð, the social centre in Reykjanesbær. Then I have a 50% job, mostly on weekends and nights in Blikaás, a house for disabled people in Hafnarfjörður. My side hustle is making videos and taking photos. I used to do that mostly for clubs or events, but recently, I have been getting good contracts with municipalities or governmental institutions like Samfés. It’s a better — and better-paid — job.
Starting fresh in Iceland
I came here from Venezuela as a refugee. When I first moved, it took some time to get my paperwork in order. I got some interviews to start working at the airport and cleaning companies and such, but then Covid-19 hit.
In Reykjanesbær, you either work for the municipality or you work for the tourist industry. It was quite hard to find a job, so I started working part-time here, part-time there, trying to hustle on the side, and I got quite accustomed to it. In all these years, I never had stability at work, like a 100% job, until maybe two years ago when I was hired by the municipality. I’m very used to always doing one thing and another thing, but always in this area of making videos, taking pictures, or doing creative stuff.
In the beginning, having a few jobs was a necessity, but now, I do it to have a more comfortable life here. All my family is in Venezuela, my mother is disabled and cannot really work, so she lives largely on the money I can send her, as do my grandparents. I try to support them as much as possible. In recent years, Venezuela has become a really expensive place — when I moved here five years ago, if I was able to send $100-200, it was a lot of money. Now, I send almost 2 million ISK per year. Having a side hustle helps me a lot with that. I’m also going to have a baby soon, so it’s good to be prepared.
For most people I know, the current situation with prices everywhere going up, it’s quite hard to live on only one job — to pay the rent or the mortgage, the food, and everything else and still have the quality of life you want — unless you have a very good job.
I’m pretty good with finances; I’ve never been in debt or live paycheck to paycheck. I like to save and invest money. The economic crisis in my country when I was growing up helped me learn this. So basically, as it works right now, my work in Reykjanesbær allows me to pay the mortgage on my house and all the payments for me and my family. My partner and I try to contribute equally to the mortgage. A good amount of my 50% job goes to my family in Venezuela. And then, the freelancing side hustle is the money I allow myself to fully save or try to invest, or spend on something nice that I want.
Around-the-clock hustle
My work schedule in the social centre is usually from 13:00 to 20:00 most days, so I have a lot of time in the mornings and at night. I usually work Monday to Thursday, and every other Friday. That works well with my job in Hafnarfjörður, where I work every other weekend. Then I have a couple of night shifts during the week. Of course, it’s a little bit tiring — the shift is from around 22:00 or 23:00 to 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, so I have four hours to sleep before going back to my other job.
For my video and photo gigs, I usually book them on the weekends when I’m free, or at night. Sometimes, when there’s not much to do at work, I can do some editing. This works well, especially during night shifts in the house for disabled people because there isn’t really much to do at night. You need to be there if someone needs you, but it’s mostly an emergency response role. Sometimes, I have the entire night to edit while on duty. It works for me because my job allows me to do it, otherwise, it would probably be impossible.
I have a BA in visual arts and my job at the social centre is mainly running an art program. I have different courses for kids. I love my job there. The job at the house for disabled people started as a summer job, but I really like the people living there and I think I have made some emotional connection with them — it feels like I’m spending time with my own grandparents or something. I’ve been doing videography and photography for maybe 10 years — that was my job in Venezuela. I also love it!
Preparing for fatherhood
I’m having a baby probably in two weeks, so I think that will change everything. I found out that getting paternity leave when you have multiple jobs is very complicated. Right now I will start with just taking normal orlof (leave of absence) and then try to figure it out, take maybe 30% on one job and another percent on another. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to have a normal fæðingarorlof (paternity leave) like most people, because the current system doesn’t really work well with multiple jobs.
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