Moonlighting: Ethical or Unethical
Introduction : Moonlighting is a practice where employees work a second job outside their regular employments’ working hours. People may work in the night time to earn the extra income. The point to be noted here is that the primary employer is not aware of the employee’s second job.
More often than not, the employee keeps it a secret from his employer. The cost of living is rising, and people are trying their best to make the ends meet, however, certain jobs may not be done together. Moonlighting is especially forbidden in Information Technology (IT) sector as they deal with confidential data and there is a possibility that the employee makes use of the privy information for personal benefit by sharing it with the outside companies.
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Outcome of Covid-19
Moonlighting is a pretty recent phenomenon; it is one of the outcomes of Covid-19. Almost everyone was working from home, which lead to savings in the commute time and as lockdown was imposed, even the weekends were free. This is where people noticed an opportunity to earn a penny or two by taking up a second job.
Work from home has made the working hours extremely flexible tempting people to juggle more than one job. A recent study mentioned that more than 40% of IT employees find moonlighting. Another study by The University of Texas at Austin found that 60% of surveyed employees said that they were more likely to moonlight if they felt dissatisfied with work or had less control over their working hours.
Reasons Behind Moonlighting
Freelance is the new trend and nearly 75% of the workforce are thinking about freelance opportunities, leading to moonlighting. The incentive in these jobs is the nectar that attracts the bees. Various studies recently found that moonlighting developers are well-compensated. The average moonlighter makes $60/hour to $150/hour, depending on the nature of the work and type of project. This is great for those looking for extra income and finds fulfilment from doing something they love. The reasons for moonlighting are many from following passion to curing boredom, the below image represents the same.
(Picture depicting why people take up moonlighting)
Causes of Concerns for Companies
The primary factor of concern in moonlighting is sharing of info with rival companies, while other factors such as lack of work-life balance indicate that moonlighting may not be a suitable practice. On the other hand, the above-mentioned situation may not always be the case. The people who have no conflict of interest between the first and the second employment and have balanced working hours, may take up moonlighting to increase their earnings.
However, disclosing the same to the employers may be stipulated by the employing companies. If the employees in the IT sector take up a second job secretly and spend their nights working too, the productivity in the day job will be affected and this is a major cause of concern for the IT companies. While companies like Infosys, Wipro have actually fired employees when they were found to be moonlighting, other companies like Swiggy have a different opinion. According to the policy of Swiggy, moonlighting could encompass activity outside of the office hours or on weekends that does not impact the productivity on the full-time job or have a conflict of interest with the company’s business in any way.
Positive Points of Moonlighting
The harms of moonlighting have been discussed above which include data breach, loss of productivity in the employees, burn-out, whereas there are some positive points to this as well. The financial security of the employee is improved, the leisure time is better utilised, and there is an opportunity for skill development as well.
Many people do not pursue their passions due to financial constraints and by taking up a second job, millions of people have found a way to accomplish their passion projects as well. Networking of the employees becomes an asset, as they now know twice the amount of people as compared to their day job. While the employee earns extra money, in many cases, the earnings from the second job are not disclosed in the Income Tax Returns. This is huge loss of revenue to the Government and a wrong disclosure in the employees’ records.
Smart Ways of Dealing with Moonlighting
As mentioned earlier, some companies frown on moonlighting and fire employees who practice it, other companies have partially accepted moonlighting, and then there is a third category, where they are actively trying to solve the problem. Companies ask open-ended questions to their employees as to why they are, or why they might consider moonlighting and solve it accordingly.
Rather than imposing penalties on the employee, they have politely explained the legal consequences and how it might affect their chances of growing in the company. Another smart way of dealing with moonlighting is making the employees sign a non-compete agreement which ensures they cannot legally work with a rival company and if they do, they will have to face the penalty for breach of contract. Tech companies have installed software to keep an eye on the employees’ activities to see if they are using the laptop to work on the company’s project or something else.
Conclusion
Practically speaking moonlighting may be harmless as people are just working extra time to earn more money for themselves and their families or to follow their dreams. The crucial point to be noted here is that as long as there is no breach of contract and the employee is complying with the laws and regulations of the employer and being productive in the job that is assigned to him, moonlighting may not be a cause of concern.
Ethically speaking moonlighting may be practised after due disclosures and compliance with the contracts. The same has been highlighted by Tech Mahindra CEO N Ganapathy Subramaniam, who said that if the employees are meeting efficiency and productivity standards and are not committing fraud or doing anything that harms the company’s ethics or values, there is no problem in making an extra buck through moonlighting.
