The Great Moonlighting Muddle

Moonlighting. Most it services companies call it cheating. Most employees call it their choice to do what they want in their free time. The government has also jumped in with its own view. An acceptable middle path is yet to be found

- Vidya S., Aakanksha Chaturvedi And Binu Paul

IT'S BUSINESS AS usual on a balmy Wednesday afternoon at a cricket academy in Chennai. The coach attends to parents dropping by for enquiries, even while keeping a sharp eye on a bunch of youngsters practising batting drills at the nets. On the side, he keeps his laptop open, ready for him to jump into an office call on Zoom or MS Teams whenever his US client needs him.

Confused? What's a cricket coach doing with a laptop for 'office calls'? And we're not talking about calls with cricket authorities here. Well, this particular 'coach' is actually a senior-level UX designer at a leading multinational IT company. The cricket part is his passion, something that he has been able to indulge in thanks to the flexibility of remote work his office allows. The coach has been playing out this 'double role' on most days since June 2021, when he realised his dream of setting up his own centre to teach children cricket. His routine: log in at 10 am, attend a few office calls, have lunch, go to the ground by 3 pm, and juggle office work and coaching duties till 7 pm.

"My boss knows about it, although I didn't take any explicit permission from my employer. I think it is not required because it's not a competitor. Hybrid work allows me to be at the academy as well as do my office work," says the 41-year-old, requesting anonymity. He is not entirely sure if what he does constitutes moonlighting (which is essentially doing jobs or projects not connected with one's employer). His workload is manageable, he feels his productivity hasn't dropped, and his boss is aware of his side venture. He says a few of his colleagues are even pursuing acting on the side.