Love it or hate it, moonlighting is here to stay

“There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple.” This is how Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji recently tweeted his disapproval of the practice of workers keeping a second job, typically secretly, in addition to their regular employment.

That sparked an intense debate in the Indian IT industry. While some industry leaders vehemently opposed it, others called for a change in the fundamental relationship between an employer and employees in India.

The pandemic gave many employees a chance to work from home and serve more than one employer without getting caught. Many resorted to the practice to make additional money amid uncertain times. Moonlighting became so rampant that some firms even hired investigators to snoop on their workers.

Given the change in work culture during the pandemic, the subsequent ‘Great Resignation’ and evolving startup ecosystem, HR experts urged bosses to make peace with the fact that moonlighting was here to stay, and find ways to make it work for everyone involved.

“This practice can be made transparent with employees giving disclosures and companies coming up with conditions that allow it. While dual employment is unethical and illegal, companies can allow staffers to work for a certain number of hours on other projects that don’t affect their delivery with the present company,” Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of CIEL HR Services, told DH.

“All aspects of (the) moonlighting policy should be brought out rather than strictly banning it. Because, it is very difficult to monitor employees whether they are moonlighting or not, in WFH conditions and even from offices. Therefore, a liberalised approach will help,” Mishra added.

Why are IT firms worried?

IT firms have been dealing with high attrition during the pandemic that fuelled a digital boom and a subsequent war for talent. That led to a rise in wage costs, resulting in a huge margin squeeze.

They are worried if moonlighting by full-time employees could create legal and reputational risks, just in case client confidentiality is breached in any manner.

“Not only conflict of interest but client confidentiality has to be maintained,” said Siddharth Pai, an IT outsourcing advisor and founder of venture capital firm Siana Capital Management.

“Imagine a situation if one staff (member) is working for two rival companies that have clients who are fierce competitors. If this employee starts sharing secrets with any of these clients, it will be a big issue.”

He also highlighted the other problems tied to moonlighting.

“Employees with a full-time job, doing work in outside projects is wrong as it infringes upon their productivity,” Pai added.

Some looked at it differently.

For instance, Tech Mahindra’s MD & CEO C P Gurnani recently said that given a chance, he would make a moonlighting policy for his company. Food delivery firm Swiggy has already introduced a moonlighting policy to let its employees take up external projects pro bono or for money, based on internal approvals.

Many said this was just the start of a flexible work model after the pandemic brought in fundamental changes in the employee-employer relationship.

“The issue is more complex than classifying it as completely ethical or unethical. While many companies are terming it unethical, there are many companies that are welcoming such gig work. The new economy companies are more than welcome to such a phenomenon,” said Sumeet Doshi, the country manager of the Indian arm of workforce management firm Ultimate Kronos Group.

The US has around 57 million gig workers. While the environment is different in India, that trend will pick up, he pointed out.

“If an employee can work on projects outside his primary job, then why can’t companies provide gig work opportunities for staffers within the organisation? Indian IT companies work on all kinds of technology areas and if they wish, they can use the expertise of their employees in many work areas that are outside of employees’ current projects,” Doshi said.