IBM India MD Sandip Patel cautions workers against moonlighting: Report

In an internal email, IBM India MD Sandip Patel underscored the company's moonlighting policies and discouraged it as well as any personal activities taken up at the cost of IBM's interests, Moneycontrol reported.

“Simply put, 'moonlighting' is commonly referred to as having a second job in addition to one's regular, full-time employment,” he said in the note.

Earlier, in September, too, Patel had spoken on moonlighting, stating clearly that he was against dual employment.

Speaking at the company's flagship event 'Think 2022,' Patil had called it “not ethically right” adding that he supported Wipro Chairman Rishat Premji's stance on the issue.

According to the internal note, IBM’s employment contracts require employees to refrain from being involved in any other employment or business in any role or capacity, particularly if it is a competitor, while employed with IBM.

“IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) also make it clear under Guidelines 7.1 and 7.2 that while an IBMers' time outside of work is their own, it also requires them to avoid engaging in activities that create a conflict of interest with IBM’s business. IBM’s BCGs highlight that providing assistance to a competitor in any capacity is a clear conflict of interest,” the note said.

“At IBM, our stance has always been clear: we encourage every IBMer to bring their whole selves to work. Your passion – be it for art, dance, or music is celebrated here, and in that spirit, we’d love to see you pursue your interests. However, if you advance a personal interest, whether directly or indirectly, at the expense of IBM’s interests, it is treated as a serious conflict of interest and a violation of trust,” the note added.

While an employee is allowed to run a small business but its activities should be kept out of working hours as it will interfere with the employee's official duties to the company.

”IBM’s policy is also fundamentally important to the trust our clients place in IBM when they entrust us with the transformation, access, and management of critical commercial assets, including their data and systems,” the note added.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and LTI have already conveyed their stance on moonlighting.

While Wipro fired 300 employees for parallelly working with competitors, HCLTech and TCS, too, discouraged their employees from moonlighting.

Infosys in an email to its employees stated the process to be followed to take up external work. The company allowed gig work with non-competing companies but with the prior approval of the managers.