Top IT firms including Wipro, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Serviceshave warned employees against moonlighting, which has become controversial in the recent days. The Major IT Firms term Moonlighting as ‘unethical’ and cheating. Let us discuss What Moonlighting is.
MOONLIGHTING;JOB
Moonlighting allows employees to work second jobs, outside normal business hours of the primary job, under certain conditions.
MOONLIGHTING;COMPANIES
Most of the companies have said that moonlighting is not permitted according to employees’ code of conduct and any violation could lead to disciplinary action including termination of employment. The companies said that employees cannot take up other assignments during or outside business hours. They said that they discouraged dual employment. The companies opined that it would affect productivity. Moreover, Moonlighting would also create conflict of interest and even cause data breaches.
Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji was one of the first to come out against the issue. In Twitter, he said last month, There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating – plain and simple.
After this, TCS COO N Ganapathy Subramaniam came up with a similar statement, saying ‘Moonlighting is an ethical issue’.
Having similar view, Infosys had asserted that dual employment or ‘moonlighting’ is not permitted. “No two-timing – no moonlighting!,” they said.
IBM’s managing director for India and South Asia, Sandip Patel said it is not ethically right to do that (moonlighting),
MOONLIGHTING; COVID
COVID-19 pandemic is said to have led to more of moonlighting when employees were allowed to work from remote locations. Many of the companies, especially in the information technology sector, came to know that their employees were using the remote working facility to simultaneously work on projects for others.
MOONLIGHTING; FIRST COMPANY
Swiggy, the food delivery platform, was the first in India to openly promote moonlighting. They even launched an industry-first ‘Moonlighting policy’, which encourages its employees to undertake second jobs with certain clauses, to sustain their finances.
