Multi-job careers: how to become a ‘Slasher’ in France

More and more of us are becoming Slashers. Not in the horror movie sense (we hope), but in a professional capacity. Or capacities, to be more precise.

A Slasher is someone who does multiple jobs. It’s a teacher/content writer/graphic designer/tattoo artist/jazz singer or any other combination of careers. In fact, it’s the ‘/’ that gives the Slasher its name. Slash careers are booming right now: it’s thought there are up to 6 million of these versatile workers in France alone.

A multi-job career is perfectly legal, but there are certain administrative boxes that need to be ticked: things like social charges, tax considerations, accounting obligations. Not the most glamorous aspect of being a slasher, but important all the same. Let’s take a look at these bureaucratic hoops, so you can slash away without any trouble.

The side-hustle is nothing new - Leonardo Da Vinci was painting/inventing/engineering/sculpting back in the 15th Century - but today is something of a golden era for serial career slashers. They are hybrid professionals who mix it up in any of the following ways:

• a full-time job and one or more freelance side jobs
• two or more part-time jobs
• two or more freelance disciplines

They might also be retirees who’ve decided to remain professionally active after drawing a pension.

If there were 4 million Slashers in France in 2016, that number had grown to 6 million by 2022. That’s a quarter of the French workforce. So, what’s behind this considerable shift in life choice?

Slashing is usually considered a Gen Y trend, made popular by those born in the 80s and 90s and, in particular, those who’ve been through higher education. But the profile is evolving; older members of the workforce have been turning to multi-job careers in order to put the spark back into their working life and diversify their income streams ahead of retirement.

Is slashing a practice born of personal choice or does it reflect a precarious economic reality in which it’s more difficult to make ends meet?

The study mentioned above by le Salon SME suggests it’s the former: the majority of slashers actually want to slash (96% of respondents). They’re attracted by a number of factors:

• A challenge that brings variety and freedom

Juggling multiple jobs is more conducive to a career in which no two days are the same. Variety being ‘the spice of life’, slashing offers a break from the routine and allows the mind to learn and hone new skills.

A slasher finds freedom in such variety and, with many being self-employed or freelancers, a certain liberty in how they can schedule their working days.

• A promising new income stream

Even if slashing is a life choice, the financial incentive still plays a decisive role: according to le Salon SME’s data, 67% of slashers chose that path to boost their income and 29% because it allowed them to make money from a hobby they were doing for free anyway.

• A defense against economic crises

This argument may appear somewhat counter-intuitive: juggling several jobs seems, on the surface, a less stable option than the good old fashioned 9-5.

In reality, though, slashers are more resilient to economic downturns because their eggs are not all in one basket; if a job is an investment, then it’s prudent to diversify that investment. That way, when a recession hits, they are less likely to lose everything all at once.

• A smoother way to change career path

A multi-job life is a good option for workers who want to change career track and/or set up their own businesses. There are many full-time employees who decide to stick with the day job whilst also running a side-hustle, so they can test the waters without taking on too much financial risk.

Of course, slashing is not all plain sailing and is not necessarily for everyone. It’s a career model that can come with a downside:

• Slashers usually need to be particularly organized to be able to manage multiple tasks at the same time. Freelancers, for example, will have administrative obligations to satisfy as well as their clients.
• The mental load can be considerable. Multiple jobs demand more time and energy and increase the risk of burn-out.

You’re well within your rights to do several jobs at once in France, but there are some administrative conditions that need to be met, especially for those who have an employment contract.

If you’re self-employed and don’t have an employment contract, you will need to own a company with a legal status. Without this, your business activity will be considered undeclared; you won’t get access to social protection and may be exposed to fines or other legal sanctions.

Which legal status to choose

If you’re a ‘solo-preneur’, a one-person company, you can choose between several French legal forms: micro-enterprise status, ‘Entreprise Individuelle’, SARL or SASU.

The Micro-enterprise status is the most common amongst slashers and perhaps the most appropriate. It’s relatively simple to set up, requiring you just to fill out a form via France’s Guichet Unique (link in French). There’s no need for you to deposit any share capital, or to draft any company by-laws.

With a Micro-enterprise, your administrative duties are also fairly simple, leaving you more time to carry out your gigs and missions. To qualify for this status, there are turnover limits you are not allowed to exceed:

• €188,700 excl. tax per year for commercial and artisanal activities;
• €77,700 excl. tax per year for the provision of services or ‘liberal activities’.

If you’ve signed a work contract with an employer and want to start a second/third/fourth job (either as an employee or self-employed), you must first check that your work contract doesn’t contain an exclusivity clause.

This clause forbids an employee from carrying out a second, parallel professional activity. It can even apply if the two sectors are completely different from each other.

If your contract does contain such a clause, don’t worry; all is not lost. Just because there is a clause, that doesn’t mean the clause is valid. Triggering an exclusivity clause is a highly regulated procedure and it can only be applied if:

• it’s essential for the protection of the company’s legitimate interests;
• it’s justified by the nature of the employee’s work (i.e. if the employee has high-level or strategic responsibilities);
• it’s reasonable and limited in time.

Even if your exclusivity clause seems valid by ticking all the above boxes, you could still explain your new project to your employer. If the field of activity is very different and there is no conflict of interest, there’s a decent chance your employer could waive the exclusivity clause.

You should also check your employment contract for a non-compete clause. This is designed to prevent an employee becoming, or working for, a competitor of their former employer upon ending the work contract.

Again, this clause needs to meet strict criteria if it’s to be enforced:

• it must be justified by the legitimate interests of the company;
• it must be limited in geographical scope and in time (for no longer than 2 years);
• it must be accompanied by a form of financial compensation;
• it must be proportionate to the parties’ objectives and considerate of the outgoing employee’s ability to find employment elsewhere.

Some regulated professions can’t legally be carried out alongside secondary commercial activities, for ethical reasons.

This is the case for lawyers, doctors, judges and law enforcement officers for example. Restrictions also apply to some other jobs in the public sector where a conflict of interest might arise.

It’s always advisable to speak with your employer about your project in order to get their authorization. For example, a schoolteacher in a state-run collège absolutely has the right to give private tuition, as long as the school has given its approval.

Having several jobs will impact your tax status, your social protection and - if you’re self-employed - your accounting. 

If you work for two (or more) companies as an employee, you pay income tax (l’impôt sur le revenu) and are obliged to declare the totality of your revenue from both/all salaried jobs.

If you work for an employer and you’re also self-employed for your side-job, you will still pay income tax, but with a few more boxes to fill out in your tax declaration. You need to put your salaried revenue in the Traitements et salaires box. As for your self-employed income, that goes in either of the following boxes:

• Bénéfices industriels ou commerciaux (BIC) if your activity involves the resale of merchandise, the sale of food, the renting of accommodation or providing commercial/artisanal services;
• Bénéfices non commerciaux (BNC) if you perform a liberal activity, are an office holder (notaries, bailiffs, etc.), or collect intellectual property and copyright income.

In France, your tax situation will depend on your company legal status. If you’re a micro-enterprise, you are subject to income tax.

Again, it all depends on your situation.

If you work for two (or more) companies as an employee, there’s not much for you to think about. You continue to benefit from the general Social Security regime.

If you work for an employer and you’re also self-employed outside of the agricultural sector, you will make your contributions to the same regime - the Social Security - but your level of social security coverage is not the same for employees as it is for the self-employed.

If you work for an employer and you’re also self-employed in the agricultural sector, things are a little more complex. You will put your social security contributions into two different pots:

• the Social Security regime for your salaried job;
• the ‘mutualité sociale agricole’ (MSA) for your freelance agricultural work.

In all cases, your health costs are covered by whichever pot is linked to your principal activity (in this case the one that came first chronologically).

Accounting duties apply to any slasher with one or more self-employed or entrepreneurial activity. As you’d imagine, your exact duties depend on the legal form of the company you set up.

If you’re a micro-enterprise, your accounting obligations are considerably simplified. You will just have to:

• keep an up-to-date revenue ledger of all your income;
• keep an up-to-date purchase ledger of all your expenditure;
• send a quote and an invoice for each sale of a product or service.

As a micro-enterprise, you’ll also need to declare your turnover to URSSAF either every month or every financial quarter, according to the frequency you’ve chosen.

For non-Micro-enterprise legal forms, the accounting obligations are more thorough. We’ve broken that down for you in this dedicated article.

If you are looking to start up your slash career as a self-employed worker and want help getting your accounting done quickly and efficiently, then a Qonto account will provide you with the tools you need to automate the manual grind.

In France, a multi-service solo entrepreneur (’Un auto-entrepreneur multi-services’) is a self-employed worker under the micro-enterprise regime, who combines different activities. This type of company is a good fit for self-employed professionals who provide manual services like plumbing, painting & decorating and DIY.

To become one, you just need to create your micro-enterprise via the Guichet Unique. Please note however that some activities are not accepted, notably agriculture-related activities that include things like gardening, landscape gardening and tree surgery.

You could also create a multi-service company (’Une société multi-services’), a company that performs a variety of non-related services. The admin is heavier than for the multi-service solo entrepreneur, however, as you must draft company by-laws, deposit share capital, register your company and publish a legal notice before sending a completed dossier to the Guichet Unique.