If a person endowed with the requisite skills is pursuing opportunities for increased income, why should he grumble about his noble endeavors and intentions?
As long as there are no compromises in the quality of work and no conflict of interest through undeclared work, one should be able to make a living. Image: iStock
During Infosys’ recent internal communication to his staff, who warn them not to “live double lives“, The fairly common practice of IT staff taking on extra jobs has drawn attention in union and commentary circles. Its founder NR Narayana Murthy’s tongue-in-cheek writing in 2016 offers no-nonsense advice to leave the office on time and not to spoil the employer’s work culture.
Murthy also advises the bachelors not to waste time and enjoy the comforts of the office without visiting them at home at their expense. But the leitmotif of his post is that employees have to leave after office hours and pretty much do whatever they want.
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While the dreaded Murthy might not have openly campaigned for undeclared work, the post office’s levitation was such that lingering after hours projected both employer and employee in a bad light.
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Centuries-old practice
Undeclared work has been around for ages. While a federal employee in the United States cannot receive income from another federal source at the same time, there is no bar on someone working for someone else outside of office hours. So much so that a police officer often works after hours as a security guard or manager.
In the local area, Indian doctors prefer ‘stand-by calls’ from various hospitals in their vicinity for the mutual benefit of the hospital and the doctor – cost reduction for the former and multi-source revenue for the latter.
As the practice of pandemic work-from-home (WFH) becomes commonplace, particularly in the IT sector, it’s time the industry switched to contracting IT professionals in lieu of employment, even as the COVID threat wanes the facade of the employer-employee relationship is broken through and the reality of the client dawns wide open. It would save the employer several expenses mainly related to retirement benefits like contributions to the provident fund, holiday pay (LTC), etc. The professional would be spared the blush.
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With remote jobs, it’s impossible for an employer to keep track of whether a techie is actually moonlighting. For this reason, Tech Mahindra boss CP Gurnani is more realistic when he says his company could make undeclared work kosher if employees are open about it.
confidentiality clause
The possibility of a breach of confidentiality must be addressed. An employee is bound by the confidentiality clause, but there is no reason why this cannot be written in contracts for jobs distributed to the IT professionals from time to time.
It is necessary for a service center not to haphazardly serve competing brands lest counterfeit parts end up in a reputable brand, as the National Consumer Forum found decades ago in the Sony Electronics case. But a head-only service provider like the IT professional need not be unnecessarily tied to one company at a time, as they can be expected to strictly share their energies and efforts.
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At the root of the problem is the general opinion that emerges from the prejudice that undeclared work is in effect promiscuity piled on infidelity. If a person endowed with the requisite skills is pursuing opportunities for increased income, why should he grumble about his noble endeavors and intentions?
I remember that stenographers from the Central Secretariat cycled energetically to law firms to take dictations from them and type up legal documents. It suited both of them. A young lawyer couldn’t afford full-time shorthand, and full-time shorthand had to supplement his income since he wasn’t able to make ends meet in those days when government salaries were abysmal.
Union in arms
Infosys’ letter to its employees, claiming that dual employment or undeclared work is not allowed and warning that any breach of contract terms will result in disciplinary action “which may even result in termination of employment,” has both technicians as well as their offspring robbed the hairs on the back of their necks Senate of the union Information Technology Employees (NITES) in Pune.
The union is, of course, being hyper-technical when they say that given Aadhaar (the ID card) and UAN (the lifetime identity for an EPFO member), no one can work for two employers at the same time, as his game would be exposed if the system refused two or more PK contributions for the same month. It is forgotten that undeclared work is a part-time, after-hours job, often paid hourly or piecemeal, without being fattened by pension or annual benefits.
“Clandestine work is a practice of working a second job during normal business hours/off-hours. Infosys as a company strongly discourages dual employment,” read the recent mailer, which caused an uproar. It forgets that what a person does outside of business hours is not strictly an employer’s job.
In the gig economy the world is heading towards, an intrepid taxi driver takes clients from Ola and Uber. If he can span both worlds, why should he nag about his company and his skills? Strangely, industrialists and entrepreneurs who up the ante for hard-working gardeners don’t mind when part-time company directors scurry from one board meeting to the next to rake in attractive attendance fees.
The point is, as long as there is no compromise on the quality of work and no conflict of interest scenario, one should be allowed to make a living.
epilogue
In a surreal way, Infosys’ worldview of undeclared work seems at odds with that of its promoter, Murthy. He was against the culture of the winner-takes-all—amazing honcho pay that leaves the second-in-command pathetic.
It’s well known that Infosys drivers and people became millionaires thanks to stock options — thanks to the democratization of stock ownership among public investors, including employees at the bottom of the pile — when Murthy was at the helm. He certainly wasn’t talking about undeclared work, but connecting the dots, it’s obvious that far from annoying low-level employees if they got rich, he would be happy if they worked towards wealth. So what if it’s moonlighting.
(The writer is a CA by qualification and writes on business, consumer issues and tax laws.)
(The Federal strives to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas, or opinions contained in the articles are provided by the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal.)
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