Tech giant Infosys has warned its employees that if they are found engaged in moonlighting, they could be fired, according to an email accessed by Moneycontrol.
"Remember - NO TWO-TIMING - NO MOONLIGHTING (sic)," an email sent by the company’s HR to employees on September 12 reads, according to the report.
The company “strictly discourages dual employment”, and defines moonlighting as working a second job during or outside of regular business hours, as per the email. It asserted that dual employment is not permitted by its employee handbook and code of conduct.
Infosys also cited offer letters that state the employee cannot take full-time or part-time jobs in any business activity without the consent of the company. Any violation of clauses could even lead to the termination of employment, it added.
The IT behemoth’s email to the employee follows an increase in moonlighting gigs post the shift to remote work, it said. The email said it has become easier, especially for IT employees, to hold a second job without their primary employer knowing, according to the Moneycontrol report.
“This can pose serious challenges to our business such as the impact on productivity, job performance, risk of data and confidential information leakage, etc," the email reads.
While social media is abuzz with remarks from those supporting and against moonlight. The discussion gained momentum after the food delivery platform
Swiggy allowed its employees to take up extra jobs outside of their work hours.
Infosys’ stance is in line with that of Wipro chairman Rishad Premji who earlier termed moonlighting as cheating.
However, the former director of Infosys
Mohandas Pai was of the opinion that moonlighting is not cheating. He explained that an employment contract is between an employer who pays an employee for working ‘n’ number of hours in a day for the company and what they do after this period is his/her freedom. They can do whatever they want, he said.Meanwhile, a survey by Kotak Institutional Equities of 400 IT/ITeS employees in July revealed that 65 percent of respondents either were engaged in part-time opportunities during work-from-home (WFH) or knew a colleague who was.
