Dual Employment

Columbia University supports an environment that values employment and encourages employees who express an interest, and have the abilities, to pursue appropriate vacancies to foster their career development. 

The purpose of this policy is to establish appropriate guidelines for employees and departments with respect to an employee holding more than one position at the University. Dual employment occurs when an employee holds two or more paid positions in more than one department. When one of the positions requires a full-time work week, the employee will not be hired by another department to fill a regular full- or part-time position.

Department Administrators, Human Resources Representatives and Hiring Managers should review and understand this policy, as well as refer to the Recruitment Hiring Guide in the HR Manager Toolkit.

Academic Officers, Officers of Instruction, Officers of Research and Officers of the Libraries should refer to the Faculty Handbook.

Employees covered under applicable collective bargaining agreements are not affected by this policy. Support-Staff covered by collective bargaining agreements are governed by the provisions of their respective contract. Collective bargaining agreements may be found on the HR website under Union Contracts. 

When an employee holds a position that requires less than a full-time work week, the employee may be hired by another department for part-time duties so long as the regularly scheduled work week does not exceed 35 hours. However, the additional work must be authorized by the unit where the employee was initially hired. When hourly rates differ between the departments, the higher rate will be paid by both departments. The department that first hired the employee will be responsible for all payroll forms for administrative purposes.

Occasional overtime must be paid by the department that exceeds the scheduled hours.

If an employee is initially hired to perform two part-time jobs which constitute a regular full-time position and one is subsequently eliminated, the employee has the option of retaining the remaining part-time position or accepting a layoff.