Moonlighting: After Infosys ban, IBM cracks whip; Says not ethically right for full-time employees

Amid the brouhaha over moonlighting in India, Cloud Major IBM on Wednesday made it clear that the practice is not ethical and the company does not promote such behaviour at workplace.

Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India, said that the company's position is exactly that of the overall industry in the country.

"All of our workers when they are employed, they 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," he told reporters here.

"That's our position now and you've already heard the industry position," he added.

Moonlighting allows employees to work outside their primary working hours.

Some startups and unicorns like Swiggy have encouraged the practice, while most of the traditional companies are calling it cheating.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji recently said that the concept of a second job in addition to the regular job is "plain and simple" cheating.

"There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating -- plain and simple," he emphasised.

Infosys bans Moonlighting

Indian IT major, Infosys has come cracking down on moonlighting (dual employment) and warned employees if found out, it could lead to termination of services, sources said on Tuesday.

However, since the job market is still hot in Bengaluru despite fears of US recession and the IT giant's diktat is not going to affect moonlighting by its employees.

The techies including those who are employed in the IT giant, explain that until the work from home option is there, the Infy's diktat won't work. The start-ups and unicorns are heads over heels for talent and skilled professionals, they say.

Not only Infosys, other major IT companies won't be able to detect the activity. Employees explain that they will switch over to other assignments by start-ups, who are flexible. They want to poach the talent in the first place, the skilled employees are in commanding position to take the attractive offer.

"We can manage both the work. When it is not affecting the work, the respective companies should not have problem," a software professional maintained.

Infosys insiders confirmed the stern mail by the company, warning them not to take up any other job while working for the company recently.

Amounts to cheating: Wipro

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji has tweeted earlier that moonlighting is cheating plain and simple.

The trend is gift of the Corona pandemic. Now, most of companies are asking employees to come to office twice in a week. The recent rains have compelled the workers to work from home in Bengaluru.

Moonlighting is not a question of morality, it's about efficiency of a professional, insists a start-up founder.