T.V Mohandas Pai, former CFO and Ex-director of Infosys said that moonlighting has to be redefined and looked at differently. He was speaking at ‘The Next Step’ event organiSed by Betterplace, a tech solutions company in Bengaluru on Friday.  

Pai said employees should honour the terms of the contract they sign with the companies. While it is not an issue to moonlight if the company doesn’t restrict them from doing so, it is illegal and unethical if employees use employers’ IP (intellectual property) and assets in the process, he added. He also said employees should not be working other jobs during the hours devoted to the company. 

However, if an individual is engaged in a gig that is unrelated to the job - teaching music, giving lectures, etc - which is also considered moonlighting isn’t harmful. 

Infosys memo

Recently, IT major Infosys warned its employees against moonlighting, stating that such actions will result in contract termination. Dual employment will not be permitted in accordance with Infosys’ code of conduct, the company said in an internal post. 

Moonlighting has become a growing concern for IT companies as they fear employees working multiple jobs can affect their productivity at the job, create a conflict of interest or even cause data breaches.

In recent times, various leaders of the IT industry have given diverse opinions on moonlighting. While Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji termed it as “cheating”, Tech Mahindra CEO C.P Gurnani supported the trend and has said it isn’t a concern for this company.

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