Moonlighting the Revolution in Employability

Abstract

Recently, IT giant Infosys threatened their employees with contract termination for moonlighting. They are against the dual employment concept which is not permitted as per the company’s code of conduct. That states that employees are not allowed to take up roles in other firms with respect to Infosys. The concept of moonlighting was first announced by Swiggy to its employees. this concept of moonlighting has got side hustles that gained popularity in the past month due to the demand for talent. As a side employment, the second job is typically performed at night or on weekends so it is preferred to moonlight. Indian IT firms are divided on the basis of the concept of moonlighting, some consider it unethical but others consider it a necessity there are apprehensive of the fact that it could promote a culture of unresponsiveness, and the outflow of critical information on the projects could dent their competitiveness. This paper has made an attempt to theoretical explain the concept of moonlighting. How it works, the advantages and disadvantages in availing moonlighting

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Moonlighting refers to the practice of taking up secondary jobs after regular work hours, this secondary job is taken without employers’ knowledge and is usually a side job taken at night or on the weekends. The concept raised and the phrase became popular because of the well-known when Americans began looking for side or second jobs in addition to the jobs they are on a regular base to supplement their income. This concept is mainly focusing on the extra earnings apart from the income they generate from the regular source. Moonlighting normally discourages the employees from giving their best to one organization and thus affects the efficient functioning of the company. It may also affect the commitment of the employees toward the company. Trade practices and the unique working style of the organization may pass to the competitors and may reduce earnings. Moonlighting allows workers to work on side projects once they finish their shift, without compromising on their primary employment. This is the upgradation to the skills with helping them gain salary at the same time. So normally after the shift timings the person is free to do passionate things or side gigs.

II. REASONS FOR MOONLIGHTING

1. Low entry-level salaries and the cost of living is also high in cities.
2. There is a lack of employable talent in the country.
3. The dearth of employees upskilling.
4. Moonlighting is normally done as a backup when there is insecurity about the present job.
5. And the flexible work hours have made adopt the alternative job search.
6. Another thing is the remote workspace which has facilitated moonlighting as the employees need not shuttle to different work locations.
7. Gig economy which involves part-time hiring of people, employability in the gig economy is much more flexible because of part-time work. So, it takes up multiple jobs.
8. Impact of Covid which increased the culture of Moonlighting in the society.
9. Rise in price as an effect of inflation that demands for secondary source of income.
10. To gain additional working experience and low salary, incentives are not enough to maintain life standards.

A. Types of Moonlighting

As per the human resource management, Moonlighting is mainly divided into four, such as

1. Blue Moonlighting: A term used to denote failed efforts of moonlighting
2. Quarter Moonlighting: Is the practice where an employee works in a part-time job after his regular job.
3. Half Moonlighting: Spending more time than required by an additional job.
4. Full Moonlighting: Spending more time than required by the part or additional job.

III. CULTURE OF MOONLIGHTING AMONG EMPLOYEES

The pandemic gave rise to the new form of job source the work from home, the new normal and companies could no longer judge the productivity of their resources through clock in clock out time sheets, which gave raise to moonlighting concept.

1. Impact of Covid 19: The year 2020, the rapid spread of covid pandemic gave rise to the lockdown, the economy started to stalling and hence thousands of employments were questionable. Which lead many employees to search for more alternate jobs and simultaneous jobs to maintain job security as well as income security, that is a steady flow of income of as many as 70% of remote workers were aiming and working on the secondary jobs.
2. Spending Life Style: The additional income was the main source to opt for the secondary job, if they feel they are paid low at their primary jobs and need additional source of income to meet their day-to-day activities their primary source of may not be sufficient which has made to seek secondary jobs.
3. Gain Additional Work Experience: Some employees seeking secondary jobs may aim this as an experience to gain additional skills or indulge in work profiles they are more passionate about.
4. To Combat Boredom: Employees do opt for moonlighting to utilize the free time, when they do not have enough work to keep them occupied at their primary jobs.

A. Advantages of Moonlighting

1. Its helps ensure financial stability
2. Multiple sources of Income
3. Helps accrue new skills
4. Personal choice of work
5. Build a good profile
6. Which may help in change of career.
7. Job security
8. Expanding opportunities with fresh opportunities
9. Longer retention and better network

B. Disadvantage of Moonlighting

1. There won’t be a work life balance
2. There more chances of increase stress
3. There may rise conflicts with full time jobs
4. Legal but unethical
5. No legal in some states
6. Fear of leakage of confidential information of the primary job
7. Misuse of Resources and productivity
8. Conflict of interest and ethical concerns
9. Problems with performance due to poor sleep and divide in attention.

C. Concerns regarding moonlighting

1. Legal but not Ethical: The no overarching law from prohibiting a person doing multiple jobs, a person with similar nature of the job will spark confidentiality issues.
2. Exhausted Employees: If a person is already working for longer hours than the second job may make the person hectic which leads to distraction, unproductive, and neglected job responsibilities. 
3. Use of Company Resources: Employees may use company resources for their second job which increases operating expenses.
4. Impact on Health: There will be poor diet, lack of sleep which may impact the health of an employee.

IV. LAWS RELATED TO DUAL EMPLOYMENT

A, Scenario in India

1. In India, a person can work in more than one job in India without breaking the law. It may lead to a violation of confidentiality because a person with similar jobs will have restrictions in their employment agreements which is against the prohibitions against holding multiple jobs.
2. It may also be considered cheating if an employee’s contract calls for single employment and non-compete, that is the situation in most conventional employment contracts.
3. Under the Factories Act, of 1948. Dual employment is prohibited, but in some cases it companies are exempt from that rule. No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in any factory on any day on which he has already been working in any other factory.
4. As per the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, on Industrial Relations Code 2020, a worker is a person employed in a industry for a reward and workman is exhaustive and includes all workers expect those in managerial and administrative side.
5. And Labor codes under Occupational safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020, definitely restricts double employment in factory.
6. And the Draft Model standing orders for the service sector,2020 which applies to IT and ITES ,allows for a exclusive service with allowing employees to take on additional jobs with the prior permission of the employer’s. it also eliminates the employment by making this as a part time employment contract.

B. Scenario with other Countries

1. Overemployment, which is otherwise called dual employment in India is permissible in US and UK from a tax perspective. Second employment in UK is alter to a worker’s tax status, but it wouldn’t be expressly noted as a such to the payroll department of the first employer, but it would be probably gone unreported in larger organization.
2. The tax system in US is simple as it is based on self-assessment and voluntary reporting

V. WAY FORWARD

A. Deploy Tools and Techniques

As the raise of the concept of dual employment many companies and industries have developed tools to detect and prevent the leakage and day lighting that working on two different jobs simultaneously that is in the working hours of the job. Which is like the behavior of moonlighting may show indications of data leakage or intellectual property of the company.

B. Discouragement from Employers

Employers may discourage their own employees from the concern of moonlighting on the conflicts of interest, impact on primary job performance or even misuse of company resource that may lead to poor attentiveness.

C. Moonlighting as a Choice

It should a choice unless it efficiency and integrity of the employees primary duty.

D. Employees’ Responsibility

It is very much important for an employee to carefully check the contract with principal job to ensure compliance of moonlighting policies. It is very much important for an organization to provide adequate salary to employee so that the moonlight primarily due to income paucity. All the stakeholders must be consulted before drawing such plan keeping in mind the pros and cons and all the concerned.

Conclusion

The past pandemic wave induced the increased tendency for the dual concept for the employability, apart from the financial insecurity at the time of covid 19, working from home culture made work for more than two jobs at a time for generating income for their survival. The concept of gig economy has definitely kick started the major economy. There is specific law to prevent dual employment. Moonlighting is a choice unless it impacts the efficiency and integrity of the employees work schedule and ethics of the work place. As of the moonlighting is argued both with merits and demerits, but this concept is always an option for a person who is in need for stabilizing their income. Being a hick start for the Gig economy is dual employment will also be legalized based on the ethics and necessity of the future generation concentrating on increasing the income level in near future for the superpower nation.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Sajjan. S, Kaleeshwari. S. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.