Bhubaneswar: Infosys has sent a warning mail to employees with the subject line ‘No Double Lives! No Two-Timing-No Moonlighting!’ Moonlighting refers to the practice of taking up secondary jobs after regular work hours and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji had earlier termed it as “cheating – plain and simple”.
The human resource department of India’s second-largest IT company said that moonlighting is not permitted according to employees’ code of conduct and any violation could lead to disciplinary action including termination of employment, Times of India said in a report.
The Infosys email dated September 12 said: “As clearly stated in your offer letter, you agree not to take employment, whether full-time or part-time as director/partner/member/employee of any other organisation/entity engaged in any form of business activity without the consent of Infosys. The consent may be given subject to any terms and conditions that the company may think fit and may be withdrawn at any time at the discretion of the company.”
The company also asked managers to sensitise their teams on dual employment and its “consequences”.
Moonlighting has become a big concern for IT firms, which have been battling high attrition rates amid margin pressures, since majority of employees began working from home in March 2020. They are of the opinion that ‘moonlighting’ will affect productivity, and can lead to conflicts of interest and possible data breach.
Former director of Infosys Mohandas Pai, however, said low entry-level salaries in tech industries led to moonlighting. “If you don’t pay people well, they say I want to earn more money and here is the easy way of earning well because technology is available…I get paid in dollars very well, I can earn more… and so that is attractive,” he told PTI.
In India, dual employment is prohibited as per the Factories Act. But in some states, IT firms are exempted from that rule., the HT reported.
Here is how Twitterati have reacted to this warning:
No-one except @NandanNilekani can do moonlighting at @infosys ? https://t.co/1Hu5ToHJJV
— Vasundhar (@vasundhar) September 13, 2022
If you are moonlighting, your best strategy is to resign and take a chance on yourself. Life is too short. https://t.co/nv71mFeN7r
— Mandar Kagade (@MandarKagade) September 13, 2022
On one hand the CEOs are busy with their personal brand building with paid lectures, ted talks and what not!
And on the other hand suppress their employees with such rules. #moonlighting can be prevented only by fulfilling your employees’ needs— Suyash Pandey (@Suyashhpandey) September 13, 2022
No wonder companies in India hate moonlighting because that would restrict them to allocate work only within working hours. Work from home culture has pushed these hours even further to bed time.
Does any one even work only 40 hours a week in India?
— Sanket Dube (@Sanket_Dube) September 13, 2022
Hopefully the GoI asks its MP like Gautam Gambhir and Hema Malini to end moonlighting.
Infosys warns employees on moonlighting, says could lead to terminationhttps://t.co/VIejavraPE pic.twitter.com/pJ0TMKnr6a
— अभिजित (Abhijit) (@bhijit13) September 13, 2022
Companies are not happy if their employee works for other companies during out of office hours but they insist their employee to support two different projects at the same time..isn’t it simply cheating their clients #moonlighting #Infosys #Wipro
— Raj_G_Moorthy (@RajG90) September 13, 2022
I don’t see the problem with #moonlighting unless it’s clear case of ‘conflict of interest’. What employees do outside of contracted working hours is no employer’s business. People should be able to do second jobs to earn for their lives.#Infosys
— Manisha Awasthi (@Manisha_Awasthi) September 13, 2022
Dont know why Infy is making such a big fuss about the moonlighting? It should be none of their concern with what employees are doing outside of the working hrs. What do you expect people to do if you arent paying them enough. #Infosys
— Average Joe (@shubhamargade9) September 13, 2022
Fixed it! #Infosys #moonlighting pic.twitter.com/xRWsoYTObX
— Andy (@iamandy1987) September 13, 2022
