Moonlighting means doing more than one job at a time. It means doing a part-time gig, a side job, or multiple jobs generally secretly. It happens in all professions and sectors – education, IT, banking, retail, entertainment and many more. While this might not be something people consider abnormal, it has recently become a topic of debate after Wipro sacked 300 of its employees because of moonlighting.
The history of the job market in India always preached “one person, one company”. A person who joined a particular company stayed with it throughout their whole life and the employee-employer relationship was like that of a family. At present, an individual is often found to shift from company to company trying to find the correct job. LinkedIn in January 2022 said that 82% of the working population in India is considering changing jobs. 1% of IT professionals have side hustles. The reasons for such changes are better education, need for better learning opportunities, pay and work life balance.
The question arises, is moonlighting ethical?
Ideally, what an employee does outside their office, after work hours cannot be controlled or be a concern of the company. It is the employee’s right to live life at their own terms. However, there are various employment contracts which prohibit the employee from working anywhere else. In this case, moonlighting would be legally punishable.
Inspiration often strikes when one ventures out into the unknown. The safest way to learn and grow without having to worry about security and paying the bills is to do a day job and work on a side hustle project. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sal Khan had all started their breakthrough projects as side hustles. They would not have been able to do the same without the security of a job. Moonlighting provides employees an opportunity to be innovative in a safe environment.
While innovative employees are always a boon, they are best loved by the company when they are innovative within the company. A motivated, disciplined and smart employee can help the company reach heights. Losing such talent would certainly trouble the company and at times also create competitors like in the case of Brook Brothers and Ralph Lauren.
Better pay is always a cry of employees. Often due to health, education, rent and other bills, employees are stuck in a jam where they have to do more than one job to stay afloat. Therefore, allowing employees to work outside the company saves the company the burden of frequent increase in salaries and can lead to reduced turnover.
With increased competition and opportunities, it is difficult for employees to continue one job for years. Moonlighting allows them to explore the world outside their primary profession. An IT professional might also be an excellent stand-up comedian. Moonlighting may give him the opportunity to not only pursue his profession in IT but also explore the sector of entertainment.
All these are a few factors to consider while thinking about the applicability of moonlighting in the modern era. It has its benefits and flaws. The work culture and company are the basis of decision. Many regulations can be bought about to reach a middle ground. The employees should be educated and informed about all these rules before signing their employment letters and the company should be informed about any prior or current gigs that they might be doing. Moonlighting is neither positive nor negative. It is subjective and depends on the situation and people involved.
Authored by: Hritika Dujodwala, SYBAF
The Endeavour Editorial Club 