Why the decline of undeclared work is good news for the tech sector – and for technicians

The contentious issue even reached Parliament, forcing the Minister of State for Labor and Employment, Rameshwar Teli, to clarify that “As per the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, a workman cannot must at no time work against the interests of the company. the industrial establishment in which he is employed and must not accept any employment, in addition to his employment in the establishment, which could harm the interests of his employer.

While moonlighting remains a topic of fervent debate, recent reports from Mint indicate a decline in such activities of 70 to 90 percent, largely due to the decline in freelance assignments, moderate growth in the IT sector, and the end of work from home policies in 2017. many offices.

The problem of undeclared labor erupted last July when a Wipro human resources manager discovered that some employees were working simultaneously for competitors. A detailed investigation resulted in a series of dismissals.

Following Wipro’s lead, tech giants like Infosys and IBM have issued warnings against side jobs. Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji expressed his disapproval on Twitter, now renamed X, saying: “There is a lot of talk about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating – plain and simple. »

However, opinions were also mixed. Tech Mahindra Managing Director CP Gurnani felt that as long as employees did not commit fraud or work against the values ​​and ethics of the employer and also adhered to productivity standards, it There was no harm in earning extra money.

But Gurnani was an exception, and understandably so. Companies spend a lot of money training their employees. Infosys, in its FY23 ESG report, revealed that on average, each employee received 130.5 hours of training per year, while TCS reported even higher numbers. Globally, the internal training budget of Fortune 500 companies has exceeded $360 billion, according to Research.com data.

More than costs, employers are concerned about data privacy and strategy leaks to competitors. Since much of the revenue generated by Indian IT companies comes from outsourcing, with strict data confidentiality clauses with clients, moonlighting can seriously damage their relationships with clients.

Even companies that have officially allowed their employees to find second jobs – like Swiggy, for example – do so with a lot of ifs and buts. But an employer’s definition of a second job differs significantly from what employees think of a second job or moonlighting. “Whether it is volunteering with an NGO, working as a dance instructor or creating content for social media, Swiggy strongly believes that working on such projects outside of one’s full-time job can contribute significantly to an individual’s professional and personal development. » says the company’s policy announcement.

Others may not have made such announcements official, but most have no problem with employees doing things outside of work that do not conflict with the company’s scope of work. ‘business. Krish Ashok, Global Head of TCS Digital Work Unit, is for example a well-known stand-up comedian, a regular columnist, a trained musician who performs and uploads compositions to streaming platforms and is a noted food blogger and author , all of which have in no way impacted his career.

It’s about using the same skills a person was hired for – and often expensive training for as well – for a rival, which understandably annoys employers. Employees, on the other hand, often see moonlighting as a way to add to wages perceived as inadequate, or as a lack of motivation and challenge in their daily work. An academic study on the impact of moonlighting by three professors from Pune found that 50% of respondents were in favor of moonlighting, 32% unsure and only 18% against.

More than half of U.S. workers have considered moonlighting to fight inflation, with 38% looking for a second job and 14% planning to do so, a Qualtrics International survey found.

Clearly, while increased surveillance and return-to-office rules may have reduced the incidence of moonlighting, a significant number of employees remain open to the idea. Given this, employers, particularly in the IT sector but elsewhere as well, must work to improve employee engagement and address concerns about fair compensation for their work.

Enabling “intrapreneurship,” that is, letting employees work on synergistic projects and potentially “transforming” them into full-fledged entrepreneurs, is another option. Software and services provider Zoho, for example, has produced more than 60 of these founders, who are colloquially known in the industry as the “Zoho mafia.”

Alternatively, skilled individuals can adopt formal gig work, eliminating the ethical dilemmas associated with multiple jobs. Gig workers can maintain data privacy, focusing on specific tasks without access to overall company policies. Even Premji might agree that there is no cheating in this.