Check The Reactions To Infosys’ ‘No Double Lives! No Two-Timing-No Moonlighting!’ Warning

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 The consent may be given subject to any terms and conditions that the company may think fit and may be withdrawn at any time at the discretion of the company.”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: