I’m part of an online military forum where recently another member asked about the process for getting approved for off duty employment. She’d been told she needed to get a form signed to start up a small business. Since I went through the same process to start this blog, I thought I’d share my experiences.
Quick note for my civilian readers: active duty military members are not allowed to work a second job, or take on a side hustle, without permission. I’ll explain more below, but that’s the context behind writing this post.
Reservists and Guardsmen
Another quick note about Reservists and Guardsmen to start us off. I am not a Reservist or Guardsmen, and have never been one. Nor do I ever expect to be one. My experience is 100% based on being an active duty officer who wanted to start a business. I imagine that Reservists and Guardsmen don’t have to go through this process, although maybe you do if you are a full-timer? It does appear you have to inform your commander of your employment to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
If you know more, please put it in the comments! Thanks!
Off Duty Employment
The first thing to know about trying to get approved for off duty employment is that every unit can set up their own requirements. So I’ll talk about the Department of Defense (DOD) requirements, and a little about my own process through the Air Force, but be aware your situation may not match what I write here.
The DOD lays out the basic information for off duty employment in the Outside Activities Section of the Ethics Counselor’s Deskbook. This should be your first stop if you want to work outside the military while staying on active duty.
Generally speaking, your outside employment cannot interfere with your military duties and must not create a security or readiness risk. More on that below.
Now, many of the requirements in the Ethics Counselor’s Deskbook apply to higher ranking individuals than most of us will ever be, so don’t let it scare you off. If you have any questions, just talk to the ethics counselor at the legal office.
The Ethics Counselor’s Deskbook lists a variety of other resources that may be applicable to your situation. Check out that list to see what may apply. For instance, when I speak at public events I have to abide by Air Force Instruction 35-101 (Public Affairs).
Why You Need Permission For Off Duty Employment
Some of you may be thinking “Why do I have to get permission to work during my off duty time?”
Well, there are a few reasons. First, you’ve probably heard the phrase “in the military you are on duty 24/7.” This is true, kind of. While you may not be scheduled to work 24/7, you are certainly liable to be called to work at any time. And if that call comes, you are expected to show up.
Second, your commander needs to make sure your second job isn’t going to impact your safety or the safety of those around you. This means you aren’t likely to be approved for a job that requires you to miss out on sleep. If your off duty employment affects your ability to perform your military duties, that can sometimes have dire consequences. Remember: the mission comes first.
Third, there needs to be an assessment of whether your off duty employment might have any ethical violations. If you are planning to get a job delivering pizzas, this probably isn’t going to come up. But if you are an acquisitions project manager and you want to consult for a major defense contractor, you can see how there might be concerns.
And yes, this applies to home-based and other small businesses as well. If once or twice a year you make a cake for a friend’s kid’s birthday party, you don’t need to worry about this. Or if you occasionally sell stuff you don’t need at a garage sale or on eBay, getting off duty employment approval isn’t necessary. But if you are opening up a side business as a cake decorator or selling $20,000 each month on eBay…yeah, you should probably get approved for off duty employment.
How to get approved for Off Duty Employment
If you’ve decided you want to work outside the military, you should start by speaking to your supervisor. They should work with you to decide whether your plan is feasible given your current workload and schedule. You should also discuss what kind of employment you are seeking and whether that works with their expectations.
For instance, are you looking for a job that will have stringent rules about when you show up and leave? Are you planning to sign up for work hours that begin shortly after your regular duty day? If you have to stay late at your military job to finish a task, will your new job be okay with that?
For that reason, opening your own home-based business can be the easiest way to earn money outside your military paycheck. If you control your own schedule for your off duty employment, your supervisor might be more willing to approve it. But, of course, that is a conversation you will have to have with them.
Once your supersivor is on board, you will also need to get your commander to approve of the off duty employment. Depending on your unit’s local rules, you may also need to get the legal office and/or an ethics office to sign off.
What exactly do they need to sign? I’m so glad you asked…
Air Force
In the Air Force, you will have to fill out the AF Form 3902. You can find that form via e-Publishing here. If that link doesn’t work (it gives me trouble), you can also find it here or typically your local legal office will have it. I couldn’t find a regulation covering off duty employment for the entire Air Force, but if you go to e-Publishing and search for “off-duty” you will find them for several bases and commands.
Medical personnel in the Air Force should check out AFI 44-102 for more information.
Navy
The most current information I was able to find for the Navy came from this document. This says your requests for outside employment must be reviewed annually or when the situation changes, so make sure you stay on top of that.
Army
Everything I found for the Army seems to direct you to Army Regulation 600-50, which was last updated in 1988. Is that right?
Marines
Oh, Marines. A Google search for your applicable documents and regulations was not successful. I did find this document but I don’t know how current it is. I’d recommend talking to your local legal office and reviewing the DOD Ethics Counselor’s Deskbook.
Coast Guard
The Coasties appear to have even less information available than the Army and Marines. Whyyyy????
Medical Off Duty Employment
Are you in a medical position and looking to work off duty at a medical facility? Guess what? There are specific rules that apply just to you! Above and beyond the normal DOD, service-specific, and local unit rules, there are special rules just for medical personnel. For instance, the Air Force Instruction 44-102 I mentioned above limits off duty employment to 16 hours per week unless you are in official leave status. You can get a waiver to work more than that, though.
Ethics Office
Depending on where you work and what off duty employment you are planning to conduct, you may be required to talk to an ethics office. I currently work outside an immediate Air Force chain of command, and was required to submit my paperwork to an attorney/ethics counselor when I submitted my paperwork for this blog. The ethics counselor signed the Judge Advocate Recommendation portion of my AF Form 3902, and filled in some notes on a continuation page.
The gist of the notes was that I was not to use government resources (computers, phones, etc) for blogging purposes nor operate the blog during duty hours. No surprise there, and you should expect the same!
Taxes for Personal Business vs Employment
If you do choose to pursue off duty employment, make sure you are taking taxes into account. This is going to be especially important if you open a small business or serve as an independent contractor instead of receiving W-2 income.
You see, if you work for someone else as an employee, your taxes will be taken out of your paycheck. Business owners and independent contractors have no such luxury! You will need to pay estimated taxes on a quarterly basis if that is what you plan to do. You can learn more about taxes for self-employed individuals on the IRS website.
Why Did I Worry About Outside Employment For A Blog?
From the beginning, I knew I wanted to do this blog “right.” I didn’t know where it was going to end up going, and when I first set it up I hadn’t decided whether I was going to try to monetize so I could earn back the money I spent setting it up. But I knew that I’d be spending a lot of hours on it.
Because of that, I wanted to make sure I did everything by the letter of the law. Could I have set up my blog without going through this process? Sure. Would I ever have been found out? Maybe. I’m semi-anonymous, which means some groups of people know who is running this thing but my name isn’t published in association with the blog. And I don’t talk about it at work. I also could have not monetized the blog, and therefore not had to worry about it.
So possibly I could have gotten away with not getting off duty employment approval. But if you know me in real life, you’ve probably realized I’m a stickler for rules. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all about loopholes if I can find them! But if the rule exists and doesn’t seem too onerous, I’ll follow it to the letter. So, I did.
I haven’t written about the full process of setting up my blog, but in order to do it correctly I went to a lot more effort – and a lot more cost – than the average “How To Set Up A Blog” post would have you believe. If that sort of post interests you, let me know in the comments and I’ll put something together!
What I plan to do when I change jobs
My current supervisor is a civilian with no plans to leave his job, and there are no plans for me to change positions for the two more years I’m expected to be in this assignment. So in theory, my off duty employment approval is valid for the next two years.
However, eventually I’m going to change to a new job and thus, a new supervisor. At that point, I’ll need to go through this process again. Hopefully my next supervisor will be as supportive as my current one is! If not, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Conclusion
Let’s wrap this up military style, shall we? What did we learn today?
- Check the Ethics Counselor Deskbook and the Joint Ethics Regulation
- Find out your unit’s local procedures
- Get your approval for off duty employment in writing!
- Follow up when the employment, the situation, or your military assignment or supervisor change
One more thing: I am not a lawyer! Make sure you talk to legal if you have any questions!
For your blog writing, did PAO ever request to see your content or did you have to get some other approval?
The approvals I needed were for making it into a business, not for the content. I have provided PAO with links to the blog and also copies of speeches I was scheduled to give, but I’m not sure whether they ever actually looked at them. They did recommend having a disclaimer at the beginning of speaking engagements about how I am not acting on behalf of the DOD, USAF, or USG. I use similar disclaimers on my blog and Twitter profile just to be safe.
Such a PITA process and very much babysitting by the DOD. I understand that we don’t want Joes working extra shifts at the strip club on Tuesday nights, but off-duty time should be off-duty time. There should be very limited restrictions what you can do with your free time, especially if it doesn’t interfere with your work. Lots of servicemembers driving for Uber now to make a few bucks. It would be nice if the regulations were updated.
Biggest thing I’ve learned is no one really cares about your side job as long as you don’t talk about it at work and it doesn’t interfere with your job. But, still probably good to cover your own ass!
I haven’t found it to be a PITA at all. The first time I did it, I was able to walk the paperwork around to all but one office. The one office did take several days to respond so I finally called and it turned out the person I’d sent it to was on leave. Once I knew that, I had it signed off within minutes by someone else in the office. The second time I did it, the whole process was complete in 24 hours including sending it to my HQ JAG across the country and setting up a meeting with my O-6. Easy peasy. Hopefully nobody is having trouble with this.
First off, excellent post. I wish there was something like this out there when I was in the Marines seeking off-duty employment. As you mentioned, there is not much out there regarding extra work for the Marines. It seemed to me that it was intentional so that unit commanders and leaders could have more flexibility when accommodating to their Marines and the mission.
I did eventually get a loss prevention job at a large retailer, but the process of approval from my command went in circles and ended with my Gunny (E-7) telling me to go do it but to be quiet about it. When that Gunny transferred to another command, my secondary employment status went up in the air until I had the new leader’s approval or denial. Friends of mine within the unit found that one of the best second jobs for active duty personnel is being a bouncer at a bar or club. Their shifts were almost always evenings and over the weekend, so it fit in quite nicely with garrison schedule. It also paid very well for part-time work and was hardly ever conflicting or brought up much.
Speaking from experience, young, enlisted Marines, and I’m sure other service members, often get themselves into financial trouble. Extra income can help that service member “grow up” and fix their problem, relieving some stress off of their officers and NCOs. When I was an NCO, Marines who came to me with solutions to their own problems rather than have me fix them would get much more support from me, so make sure to consider that when bringing up an extra job to the chain of command. The backing of your supervisor could very well be the difference between being approved or denied. Sorry I couldn’t come up with an actual form or document but I hope this helps! Semper Fi!
P.S. : The Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protects private sector employees from being discriminated against for any past, present, or future military activities. Once hired, active duty personnel are protected by this, so it might be a good idea to reference this if your civilian employer ever gives you a hard time about any conflicts caused as a result of your military status. Ultimately, their HR should have known that military comes first when they hired you, so they shouldn’t be able to discipline or terminate you as a result of military duties.
Nik, this is an AWESOME comment. Thanks so much for giving the USMC perspective! And yes, as a leader I completely agree with your comments about bringing a solution when you talk about problems. It’d be hard to deny a troop who came to me saying “here’s the situation I’m in and my plan to get out of it.”
Thanks!
600-50 is inactive for us army guys. What Command approval paperwork do I need for them to sign? SFL-Tap Has a Work Ex program. just need command approval.
Hi Z. You will need to talk to your command about what paperwork they use. My command has an official form, yours might be similar.
Would you be willing to share that form with me in a email?
Hi Brandon, which form are you referring to?
Speaking for the USCG, you will probably not be approved if you are at an operational unit. If you are at a support unit with set office hours it is usually a lot simpler to do. We have to write a memo, route it up the chain, and if it is all well and dandy someone signs it, it is put into your PDR, you have a copy, your supervisor has a copy, and ideally your second job has a copy. That is everything I needed to do for my command to get approval for a second place on employment.
Thank you!
I’m Active Duty Air Force and my Off duty employeer is firing me due to my hours extended at my military side. My question is can they?
1. I’m not a lawyer, and employment law is usually pretty specific to your local area.
2. Why wouldn’t they be able to? If you aren’t able to work when they need you to, it makes sense they wouldn’t keep you on, right?
1. Active Duty Military Members may not accept compensation for holding another
Federal position because their military duties make them “on call” 24 hours a day. JER 5-404.
Military personnel on terminal leave pending separation under honorable conditions may accept
a Federal position. 5 U.S.C. § 5534a
I’m currently serving on active duty T10 and have been offered to work as a contractor supporting the federal government. This regulation above states I can’t accept compensation for holding another federal position but contractors, generally, is not considered as federal employment. Is this correct? and, Would i be exempt from the above regulation? and therefore cleared to work as a contractor?
Hi Bert,
I’m not a lawyer or employment expert. I recommend talking to your local Judge Advocates office. They are part of the process to approve the employment anyway, so they are the best people to ask.
My eaos is April 15th 2020 but I need to start my job on January 1st. Even if they let me accumulate 90 days of terminal I still come up 2 weeks short. I’ve mostly looked for DOD early out options since the Navy got rid of all of it’s early out programs. I found a program called skillbridge but I have already been told that I would not fit that program. It’s very open to interpretation and I got an unfavorable interpretation. There is another route that I have looked into. My reenlistment takes me to January but I needed a 3 month extension to satisfy the minimum shore duty requirement. The thing is my extension does not exist administratively (not in my ompf). The milpersman tells me submit a letter to the board of corrections to remove the obligation since there is no signed agreement for me to do those 3 months. This is unsat though because most cases take a year plus to get a result from the board. Looking for a different point of view or just a more experienced outlook to give me any new ideas. Thanks.
Hey Nick. Honestly, all I have to recommend is working through your chain of command and the BCMR if the chain can’t help you. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Have you had any issues with affiliate marketing while on active duty? Ie- not being able to run an ad with amazon associates recommending a product because Amazon receives money as a defense contractor?
No. My squadron and group commanders, security, JAG, and PA are all aware of what I’m doing and have signed off. Nobody has even questioned it. I think it would be a problem if I tried to hide it, but I’m very open about it with them.
Does anyone know right off if Florida Guard. AGR can work as a bartender?
What is the form to fill out for Off-Duty Employment and where do I find it at and sen it up for approval.
Another thing to consider is all the risks involved with working a second job.
Risks include getting injured, or being involved in a legal matter that involves court appearances. No one thinks it will happen to them, until it does. For example, I worked private security for a non-government agency at my second job while still serving on Active duty. My command was supportive and thought everything would be fine, no big deal, no conflicts of interests, does not affect the mission and its only 8 hour shifts on the weekends. The security company understood my military job came first so if I had to call in to take time off due to work, they were fine with that.
Anyway, while working private security I ended up being the responding officer to a major breach, which resulted in a shooting. The whole situation was a mess and I missed a lot of formations and training in the Army because of the ongoing case and having to testify in court. The lesson here is that working a second job can be a liability. So even if you are working a second job and not telling your chain of command, I would advise against it. This doesn’t just go for security jobs – it can also be for something as simple as delivering pizzas (potentially getting into a car wreck) or working landscaping (getting injured on the job) on the weekends.
BLUF: Think of all the possible ramifications that can occur while working a second job or side hustle and the affects it can have on your military status.
ABSOLUTELY!!