IMPRESSIONS || September 2022

How can organizations recognize moonlighting and does it affect the efficiency of the employee?

What is moonlighting? No, it’s not taking stunning pictures in the moonlight, Moonlighting is a far more debatable phenomenon in the corporate world. Employees, especially in the tech industry, are taking up a second job after their regular 9-to-5s. This is generally done without informing the employer or obtaining their consent. Several companies, such as Infosys and Wipro have taken a stand on this issue while employees put forward their own reasons for adopting this practice. Before going further, it is worth understanding why employees resort to moonlighting.

● Ever since work from home became the new normal, companies have been unable to measure and track the productivity of their personnel by clocking in and clocking out time sheets, which boosted moonlighting.

● The arrival of Covid-19 caused a lockdown resulting in massive layoffs. This led to employees working for many jobs in order to retain job security and a consistent flow of money. Up to 70% of remote workers are working on second jobs.

● Employees also choose a second job to supplement their income is insufficient to satisfy their necessities, or to meet the demands of their extravagant lifestyle.

● Employees may also consider taking on a second job to obtain extra skills or to pursue work profiles in which they are more interested.

Employees may also choose to moonlight when they do not have enough work to keep them engaged in their primary occupations or to keep themselves active throughout the day.

Similar conclusions can be drawn from the following graph:

ResumeBuilder

Furthermore, some employees say, the company pays me for a specific number of hours of work, once I have done that, what I do in my spare time should not be the company’s concern. But what is the impact of moonlighting on employees? It can have several positive as well as negative consequences. Some positive consequences are the development of new skills, extra earnings, and offer a way to follow a passion or hobby that is unfulfilled in one’s primary job. On the other hand, the negative consequences include fatigue due to excessive workload, time management with multiple jobs, lack of sleep, and as a result poor concentration may make a person unable to get anything done.

The biggest worries that businesses have about moonlighting are data and

Employees who moonlight may be able to reveal trade secrets if they operate in

Employees must understand the necessity of keeping secret information that

Employees that work long hours may become distracted, unproductive, and

Employees may use corporate resources for second employment, raising

Employees' motivation for moonlighting is understandable but how are organizations affected by it? confidentiality breaches, as well as lost productivity. a comparable sector and position. might help a competitor. ignore job tasks due to physical tiredness from their second employment. operational costs.

Wipro has fired over 300 employees for moonlighting,' as the IT services giant toughens its stance on employees working a second job after hours. Its chairman, Rishad Premji, stated that the firm has no place for any individual who chooses to work directly with competitors while on the payroll of Wipro.He also said that “The reality is that there are people today working for Wipro and working directly for one of our competitors and we have actually discovered 300 people in the last few months who are doing exactly that”.

IBM too has warned against this by saying that: Moonlighting is a "complete violation of integrity in its deepest form".

Given such instances, employers' concerns seem legitimate. However, Swiggy has taken a very different stand on this issue Swiggy announced a new policy that permits full-time employees to have second jobs. Such personnel will be permitted to take on pro-bono or economic consideration tasks under the program. This, however, is subject to internal permissions.

Employees will be allowed to take up activity outside of office hours or on weekends that does not impact their productivity on the full-time job or has a conflict of interest with Swiggy's business in any way, according to Swiggy. During Covid19 lockdowns, a significant portion of the working population discovered new hobbies and possibly even an activity that provides an additional source of income.Whether it's volunteering with an NGO, working as a dancing instructor, or creating social media content, Swiggy claims to fully believe that working on such initiatives outside of one's full-time employment can greatly contribute to an individual's professional and personal growth.

Projects that offer a higher risk of conflict of interest or interference with Swiggy workers' tasks are subject to an approval process, according to the policy.

Whether to allow or not to allow moonlighting may depend from company to company, however, legally what recourses companies have is another important aspect.There is currently no law in India that forbids employees from working numerous jobs. A person may perform many jobs without breaching the law. A person with a comparable set of occupations, on the other hand, may raise concerns about a breach of confidence, because many companies include such limits in their employment agreements, in addition to bans against working numerous jobs. If an employee's contract requires non-compete and single employment, as is the case with the majority of traditional employment contracts, moonlighting might be deemed cheating.

It is not, however, cheating if the employment contracts do not include such a condition or provide for relaxation. Dual employment is illegal by the Factories Act of 1948. However, IT businesses are excluded from this restriction in several states. In other countries, the scenario is a bit different. Dual employment is permissible in the United States and the United Kingdom. A second job in the UK might change a worker's tax status, but it would not be explicitly mentioned to the first employer's payroll department and would likely go unnoticed in bigger organizations. The US tax system is easier since it is based on self-assessment and voluntary reporting.

Given the concerns listed above of the companies, how can companies recognize moonlighting? Some of the ways of doing so are:

Too many work-from-home requests:

Flexible working may be an excellent strategy to boost employee productivity and loyalty. However, if you don't keep track of what your employee is doing when working from home, it might become an issue. If you have to question your employee's work when they are at home on a regular basis, or if there is no proof of work being done, it is possible that they are using this time for activities linked toheir second job.

Going missing from work:

Good employees are reliable and don't need micromanagement. However, if you tend to adopt a laissez-faire approach to leadership, certain people may take advantage of it.

Employees who moonlight may struggle to balance two jobs well, and their second job may begin to interfere with their work with you. If you find the individual leave the workplace unexpectedly, maybe to accept phone calls or for lengthy amounts of time, it could indicate that they are dealing with concerns relating to their other job.

Unhappy Colleagues:

As with many other workplace difficulties, you may discover that other coworkers are aware that your employee is moonlighting.

It can, however, generate problems among other employees who are aware of the situation and are taking on more work to compensate for the moonlighting

employee's low productivity. This is one of the most hazardous outcomes of moonlighting since it not only affects the employee in question but also has a knock-on impact on other employees. This frequently leads to anonymous tips and whistleblower situations, but any company should take the necessary precautions before reacting to anonymous reports.

Low concentration:

Another clue that your employee is moonlighting is poor timekeeping, attention, and increasing weariness. If your employee is attempting to work before and after their 9-5 job, or if they work on the weekends, it is unavoidable that they will be weary and have poor attention in their employment with you. This will directly impact their productivity and performance.

This is especially crucial if your company depends on well-rested personnel to do their tasks safely and successfully. There may be major health and safety concerns, especially in industries such as construction, production lines, hospitals, and many others.

High frequency of sick leaves:

It is not uncommon for moonlighters to use sick leave to perform other jobs. Unexplained absences might indicate that your employee is doing a second job. It is also important to ensure that your employee is not working if they have been on sick leave for a lengthy period of time.

Having identified moonlighting, there are several options available with companies to handle this situation such as:

Many businesses use tools and procedures to detect and avoid hazards related to side hustles, such as data leaks. It identifies employees who may be moonlighting and shows signs of data leakage or infringement on the company's intellectual property.

Employers may prohibit employees from moonlighting due to worries about conflicts of interest, the impact on primary job performance, the abuse of corporate resources, absenteeism, inattention, or exhaustion. They can further impose penalties in occurrences of such incidents.

Companies can also adopt Swiggy’s way and allow employees to moonlight.

Moonlighting should be permitted unless it jeopardizes the efficiency and integrity of an employee's main job duties.

Overall, the topic of moonlighting remains a controversial one. While some may be more accepting of it, unless some serious concerns like data breaches are addressed, it will remain a cause of concern for companies. For now, it might be wise for companies to err on the side of caution and create an internal policy on how to handle moonlighting. On the other hand, employees can ensure that ethical and legal boundaries are not crossed in chasing their ambitions.

Ashita Karn IIM ROHTAK