India’s second-largest IT services provider, Infosys has said that moonlighting is not permitted according to the employees’ code of conduct of the company.
Infosys said that employees cannot take up other assignments during or outside business hours. The company has also added that any violation will lead to disciplinary action that could include termination of employment.
The company describes this with the taglines ‘No two-timing, no moonlighting’ and ‘No double lives’. Infosys has sent an internal communication email to employees.
Infosys clearly stated in the offer letter, “You agree not to take employment, whether full-time or part-time as director/ partner/ member/ employee of any other organization/ 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“The consent may be given subject to any terms and conditions that the company may think fit and may be withdrawn at any time at the discretion of the company,” the mail from the company said.
What is Moonlighting?
Moonlighting means working for one organisation while taking extra jobs, usually without the employer’s knowledge. Moonlighting is side employment taken up at night or on the weekends.
The phrase moonlighting became popular when Americans started looking for a second job in addition to their 9-to-5 jobs to supplement their income.
Moonlighting became a concern during the pandemic when employees started working from home. There was suspicion that employees were using the privacy afforded by remote work to simultaneously do projects for others.
How did Moonlighting Policy come into the Limelight
India’s leading on-demand delivery platform, Swiggy recently announced that its employees could take up other gigs as long as it does not affect their productivity at the food delivery venture, and was done outside office hours.
Infosys is not only the company that has came not in favor of Moonlighting. Earlier, India’s IT services provider company Wipro chairman Rishad Premji also described moonlighting as “cheating plain and simple.”
