Recently, the controversy around moonlighting, the practice of working on other jobs while already in employment is making rounds.
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Tech Mahindra Poised To Unveil Moonlighting Policy
In the same regards, large information technology (IT) companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro have cracked down on their workers.
They are basically trying to eliminate moonlighting out of apprehension that employees will disclose corporate secrets with rivals.
This month, IT major Tech Mahindra is poised to unveil its moonlighting policy for employees, said Harshvendra Soin, the company’s global chief people officer.
The Bengaluru-based IT firm is evaluating to permit side gigs as long as they do not obstruct the work at Tech Mahindra .
It is only for a short period, such as over the weekend or a couple of hours in the week, said Soin.
Joining The League
The food delivery startup Swiggy introduced a moonlighting policy during August to allow its employees to take up external projects after working hours, under certain conditions.
After Swiggy, Tech Mahindra will be one of the few entities to have a formal moonlighting policy in place.
It’s peer, IT major Infosys had recently warned staff to juggle between two jobs, softened its stance.
It has also allowed employees to take up “gig” jobs on the side with prior consent of managers.
Helps With Attrition
According to the industry experts, this move may aid the IT major to address attrition challenges, as it allows employees to take up extra sources of earnings.
Moonlighting Or Cheating
Contrary to this, Rishad Premji, executive chairman of Wipro and a former chairman of IT industry body Nasscom, flagged concern about employees taking up side gigs to work on more than one job at a time and called it ‘‘cheating’’ in a Twitter post.
Similarly, IBM has given a tough response on moonlighting, saying it is a violation of trust.
How Does It Work?
It is noteworthy here that Tech Mahindra’s moonlighting policy will include certain principles such as the work cannot be with the competition, and it should stick to the master service agreement or the contract of the customer along with written permission from the company and can’t violate the interests of the company.
Soin said, “One needs to be open about it. If you come and take written permission, it’s allowed, but there is a process to be followed,”.
Tech Mahindra’s chief executive officer (CEO) CP Gurnani said that the company was yet to frame a policy on moonlighting as it had to be something that was compliant with local laws in more than 90 countries where it had operations, in a post-earnings conference call at the start of this month.
Further adding that employees should not hide such instances as sometimes this may also add value to their CV.
Notably, in cases where employees may get into moonlighting without the prior permission then a ‘no tolerance’ policy will be followed.