Infosys, in an email sent to staff, said that moonlighting is not allowed as per the code of conduct. The human resource department warned that the violation of the code can lead to disciplinary action including termination.
Moonlighting allows employees to work second jobs outside the work hours of the primary job. Recently, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji called moonlighting "cheating". He said the concept of a second job in addition to the regular job is cheating - plain and simple.
The email was sent with the subject line 'no-two timing, no moonlighting', reported Times of India. The IT giant said it "strictly discourages dual employment and clarified that employees cannot take up other assignments during or outside business hours.
However, employees can engage in other business activities if Infosys consent to it. "The consent may be given subject to any terms and conditions that the company may think fit and may be withdrawn at any time at the discretion of the company," said the email.
During the pandemic, many with work-from-home options simultaneously worked on other projects. When IT firms came to know of the practice, it was concluded that moonlighting will affect productivity, create a conflict of interest, and cause data breaches.
N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer of Tata Consultancy Services, backed the concern and told Livemint that employers need to inculcate ethics and being right. "If you make something like this for short-term gains, in the long-term, you will lose out - that kind of a message has to go to the employees."