Now, Infosys tells its staff: 'No two-timing, no double lives'

BENGALURU: The IT industry is cracking down on moonlighting. Just days after Wipro chairman Rishad Premji described moonlighting as 'cheating - plain and simple,' Infosys has sent a stern email to employees noting that moonlighting is not permitted as per the employees’ code of conduct, and any violation will lead to disciplinary action that could include termination of employment.
With the taglines ‘No two-timing, no moonlighting’ and ‘No double lives’, the company has said that employees cannot take up other assignments during or outside business hours. TOI has reviewed a copy of the internal communication.

Moonlighting became a concern during the pandemic, when employees started working from home. There was suspicion that employees were using the privacy afforded by remote work to simultaneously do projects for others. Given the extreme shortage of technology talent, opportunities for such work had increased enormously. The recent statements by India’s biggest IT companies suggest that the problem has assumed significant proportions.
“At Infosys, dual employment is not permitted as per the Employee HandBook and the code of conduct. As clearly stated in your offer letter, you agree not to take employment, whether full-time or part-time as director/partner/member/employee of any other organisation/entity engaged in any form of business activity without the consent of Infosys. The consent may be given subject to any terms and conditions that the company may think fit and may be withdrawn at any time at the discretion of the company,” the mail from the company said.

An email sent to Infosys did not elicit a response. But in a recent conversation that TOI had with Krish Shankar, EVP and group HR head at Infosys, when asked about moonlighting, side hustles and gig workforce, he did not directly talk about moonlighting, but said the company is encouraging employees to do internal gigs, if they have the time and interest to do so, beyond their regular work. “We created a platform called Accelerate. When it was initially envisaged a few years back, it was to keep the bench people occupied. But now, Accelerate is used for our internal gigs and during the last two years we are rewarding people doing internal gigs,” he said.
The IT services companies’ response to moonlighting is in contrast to how some new-age Indian companies treat moonlighting. Swiggy recently announced that its employees could take up other gigs as long as it does not affect their productivity at the food delivery venture, and was done outside office hours. Fintech unicorn Cred had also earlier stated that it encourages its employees to take up other projects.