Moonlighting

Moonlighting- the Dilemma.

Moonlighting is the practice of working a second job outside normal 9-5 business hours.

As World of Work moved to living rooms, during the pandemic, several employees chose to take up parallel gigs to augment their income.

Especially when someone is transitioning to a new industry or role.

This may also be a factor why employees are reluctant to return to Office.

Corporates have different terms of engagement with their employees. Many include a clause disallowing a  part-time job when one is employed full-time.

The pandemic has highlighted this issue, particularly in the IT industry, where data privacy is critical to the Company. This issue is sparking a lot of controversy.

lT giants like Infosys and Wipro have come down heavily on moonlighting.

An Infosys email read: ‘No two timing no moonlighting’.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji famously called moonlighting ‘cheating plain and simple’.
IBM has also voiced similar opinions.

These corporates have sacked several employees for this reason.

On the other hand, companies like Tech Mahindra have taken a more charitable view.

Needless to say, new startups like Swiggy don’t see a problem. They are in the gig industry, anyway.

Given that full-time and life-long jobs, are expected to disappear over the years, having a side hustle may be the future of the modern workforce in years to come.

Many feel that moonlighting may be inevitable and here to stay in the future gig economy.

So how can corporates stay ahead of the curve on Moonlighting?

Corporates will necessarily have to secure their position.

Perhaps they could possibly make peace with two-timing by putting in some safeguards.

– By ensuring complete transparency,

– provided that the person is not working in a competing industry  

– ensuring that the side hustle does not clash with duties & priorities at work.

Would love to hear your views and perspectives on the issue.

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