Can I be an IC for more than one Call Center?

by Kara
(SC)

Question:

Thanks to your wonderful site, I have found that I have so many more opportunities to work at home than I realized! I started mystery shopping today, again thanks to you. I would like to do part time call center work from home. Are you aware if the companies will allow this? For instance can I work for West at Home and Working Solutions at the same time? I understand as an employee this would not be allowed, but as an IC, it seems it should work, right?



Melina's answer:

Hi Kara! That is such a good question!

For the most part, you are absolutely right; as an Independent Contractor, you can work for more than one company. In fact, there are even some companies like LiveOps that encourage you to find other companies to work with (just in case they have a low call volume week) so you would be very smart to find another company to work with .. just in case.

Every once in a while, there will be companies that have a "no compete" clause (but that is unusual and they will tell you this up front) but it is usually because they don't want you to work for a competitor and share trade secrets with them.

For example, I know there are some court research companies and recruiting companies that will not let their IC's work for another company that is a direct competitor for obvious reasons.

But for the most part, call center from home companies such as LiveOps, West at Home and Working Solutions say it is no problem to work for another company!


In fact, it is also smart to have two or more companies that you are working for in case the project that you get assigned to suddenly ends (this happened to me recently, in fact) then you can seamlessly move on to your other project and hopefully just pick up more hours.


By the way, I am so excited for you and your new job opportunities! Good luck with Mystery Shopping; I hope you find it to be fun and worth your while!


Warm regards,

Melina