Moonlighting Is Not Ethical For Full-Time Workers – IBM India

As the debate over ‘moonlighting’ continues in India, multinational technology corporation IBM has categorically stated that it does not condone or support employees engaging in this activity. 

IBM India Managing Director Sandip Patel told reporters that the cloud giant’s present position is in accordance with that of the industry as a whole in India.

“All of our workers when they are employed, sign an agreement which says that they are going to be working full-time for IBM. So moonlighting is not ethically right for them to get into,” said the IBM India official.

“That’s our position now and you’ve already heard the industry position,” Patel added.

On Monday, Infosys, the number two IT services provider in India, informed its staff that moonlighting is not authorized and that they would face disciplinary action if they were caught engaging in such activity “which could even lead to termination of employment”.

“No two-timing – no moonlighting!” Infosys said in a strong and firm message to employees.

“dual employment is not permitted as per…Employee Handbook and Code of Conduct,” the corporation states in an internal document with the catchy headline “no double lives.” In order to emphasize the point, it refers back to the corresponding provision in the offer letter.

What is Moonlighting –

Moonlighting, or working part-time at once, is a common practice among several workers. 

Moonlighting has been a hot topic since Wipro chairman Rishad Premji called it “cheating,” but there has been a lot of disagreement about whether or not it is acceptable in the business world.

Premji said the concept of the second job to the traditional job is “plain & simple” cheating. “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating — plain and simple,” emphasized the Wipro chairman.

Some unicorns and startups like Swiggy said that it just introduced the industry-first ‘Moonlighting policy‘, where the workers can take several external projects for economic or pro-bono consideration established on internal authorizations.

“This could encompass activity outside of office hours or on weekends that does not impact their productivity on the full-time job or have a conflict of interest with Swiggy’s business in any way,” said a company release.