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Moonlighting is unacceptable as it amounts to a violation of the job contract and few employees found engaging in such practices have been fired over the past 6-12 months, said Happiest Minds Technologies, an IT company.
The company has recently logged a stellar 33.7% on-year growth in net profit in the second quarter and a 31.1% rise in its total income. As of September 30, 2022, the organization had about 4,581 employees, according to the news agency PTI.
Happiest Minds asserted that moonlighting is not very prevalent within the company but did not divulge the exact number of employees against whom action had been taken on the issue.
The issue of moonlighting or dual employment has emerged as a big talking point in the IT industry ever since Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji red-flagged the issue on Twitter, equating it to ‘cheating’. Over the past weeks, several companies have waded into the issue making it clear that they do not approve of dual employment.
“We have been quite clear with our people that it is something we will not accept… because when you sign a contract or employment offer, you are agreeing to work only for that company,” Happiest Minds’ Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Anantharaju told PTI.
He was further asked whether the company had found instances of employees involved in moonlighting. “We have had a few and we immediately terminated them because it is a message you want to drive across the company. Even if it is a few hours somewhere… because there is no way of really ascertaining that. So we have done that,” said Anantharaju.
“We are clear, you can’t be moonlighting. If you want to do some voluntary activities in unrelated areas… maybe wish to go teach in a school over the weekend that is different. But for us you have to have all of your time dedicated to Happiest Minds and working out here,” he added.
He said that this is one of the reasons that the company has started getting its people back into office as the scope for a lot of these things is minimal and it can get eliminated and identified very earlier if the employees are involved in such activities, PTI reported.
The company had about 67 percent of its employees come into office in the last quarter; the plan is to push the number up by January 1, 2023, and have most of the employees in the office by April 1.
“No two-timing – no moonlighting!” India’s second largest IT services company had said.
Other IT companies that oppose moonlighting are:
During the company’s Q2 earnings, Infosys made it clear that the company does not support moonlighting and that it has fired employees who were into dual employment over the last 12 months.
Last month, Wipro’s Rishad Premji revealed that some 300 employees were fired as the IT services company had no place for any employee who chose to work directly with rivals while being on Wipro payrolls, PTI reported.
Other IT companies too have chimed in, raising their voice against moonlighting, a practice that quietly gained ground during pandemic-induced lockdown and work from home, as per PTI reports.
HCL Technologies has said it does not approve of dual employment although it hastened to add that the issue is not a major one within the company.
(With PTI inputs)
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John Miller has been writing about science, gaming, and tech culture for over a decade. He’s a top-rated reviewer with extensive experience helping people find the best deals on tech and more.
