In the post-pandemic era, wherein the employees got the flexibility to work from home, there have been instances of moonlighting = while some companies were apprehensive about their employees getting engaged in parallel employments / gigs, others were relaxed.
Typically, companies do not allow their employees to take work assignments independent (i.e to work with anybody other than their employer) of their job during the course of their employment with such companies.
To reverse this trend, Swiggy has introduced a new policy permitting its employees to take external assignments for monetary consideration or even for free.
As per this new policy, Swiggy employees will be permitted to take assignments outside office hours or even on weekends subject to approval from the Company to the extent such assignments do not hinder the productivity of Swiggy's work and do not come in conflict with economic interest of Swiggy's business and its customers.
Experts are of the opinion that this model of moonlight policy will be compatible with organizations like Swiggy as most of its staff will be working on a contractual basis and this could permit them to have additional time to work on external assignments.
Experts further believe that such moonlight models will not work for every company (especially IT companies) as there will be different security protocols preventing such companies from permitting their employees from taking external assignments beyond their job.
Interestingly, many IT companies are working from home from the last two years due to emergence of covid as a reason employees (who are working from home) have the leverage to take secondary assignments to make some side income – This prospect is currently in practice unofficially among many IT employees working from home.
As long as this moonlight policy of Swiggy does not effect its productivity there will be no major issue for Swiggy's business – However, if this moonlight policy affects productivity of Swiggy's business then it could backfire the decision of Swiggy to permit its employees to take secondary assignments.
This could be an unseen, hitherto relatively unknown and un-allowed phenomenon but I guess it is something that the corporate may have to live with, given the changes in overall dynamics.
Success of this policy could script a new chapter or should we say, new history in the corporate world, as more companies could adopt this policy to retain the top talent. Failure of this policy could discourage companies to take such policies as it may impact the productivity and growth of the business.
Source : Financial Express
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