Moonlighting ok if no conflict of interest and with transparency
Moonlighting refers to an employee involved or engaged in secondary jobs/activities besides being on-roll in a company. These are mostly done to earn a secondary (or multiple) stream(s) of income besides the regular salary. The big debate is, should it be allowed or should it not be, though there are justifications to both sides of this story.
The supporting point is that employees undertake these activities after their office hours and/or over the weekends. In my opinion, in today’s world, the lines are blurred with reference to work life and personal life. It has further diminished over these last couple of years with a large part of workforce working remotely. In such circumstances it is difficult to ascertain whether or not these works are actually done over the weekend or does it interfere in the regular works; it is tough to implement a robust monitoring mechanism with no transparency on such activities. Besides, employees can get distracted and it can dilute their focus at work.
At the same time, I do support the secondary stream of income, provided there is no-conflict of work/company’s interest. If the same/similar works are performed with the company as well as with others (can help with skill enhancement) then work ethics will be a bigger challenge to address and so should be avoided. However, an IT professional can perform music/arts over weekend as a secondary income; a manufacturing professional can coach students preparing for professional exams, and likewise. That way the balance of personal and professional life, and financial aspects as well, can be balanced effectively. You can also read the article here: https://epaper.bizzbuzz.news/Home/ShareArticle?OrgId=2897b24054a