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PYŃ.=&0 employee – Penloom https://penloom.com News articles and more Tue, 26 Nov 2024 11:14:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.9 https://penloom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cropped-favicon-32x32.png employee – Penloom https://penloom.com 32 32 Moonlighting: What it is, Pros and Cons https://penloom.com/moonlighting-what-it-is-pros-and-cons/ https://penloom.com/moonlighting-what-it-is-pros-and-cons/#respond Mon, 03 Jul 2023 08:13:58 +0000 https://penloom.com/?p=8411 It is not commonplace for people to hold two or three jobs in today’s labor market. Some do it out of necessity, while others do it to earn extra money or learn new skills. One of the trending topics for all IT organizations is Moonlighting.

Recent discussion around Moonlighting in the IT industry has highlighted a number of problems with the practice. Swiggy, a prominent online food ordering and delivery company, implemented a “Moonlighting Policy” to allow their employees to work second jobs last year. The controversy was fueled by IT giant Wipro’s dismissal of approximately 300 employees for Moonlighting. According to the corporation, the employees worked for the companies while on the company’s payroll. 

When Swiggy announced Moonlighting, it stated that people in India acquired new skills and interests during the Covid-19 lockdown, which may provide families with a new source of income. Premji tweeted the following in response to the Moonlighting craze that is sweeping the tech industry:

“There is a lot of chatter about Moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating – plain and simple.”

Therefore, let’s study moonlighting’s definition, types, motivations, advantages, and disadvantages.

What Is Moonlighting?

Moonlighting is the practice of working a second job outside of regular work hours to earn additional revenue. It may involve accepting various assignments, projects, or gigs in addition to one’s primary position with a primary company. The term is frequently used to describe those who hold two jobs.

Moonlighting can be a difficult undertaking. Managing two jobs can be challenging, and finding time for additional work can be difficult. To ensure that both tasks receive the attention they need, it is essential to be organized and plan ahead.

Types of Moonlighting

Based on their nature, Moonlighting is classified into four categories according to Human Resource Management. They are as follows:

The Blue Moonlighting

Blue Moonlighting refers to reckless moonlighting endeavors. Blue moonlighting is when an employee struggles to juggle multiple jobs. Many individuals find it challenging to juggle two jobs in a single day.

Quarter Moonlighting 

Every other employment does not need to be full-time. Additionally, it is feasible to work part-time. The practice of working a part-time job in addition to one’s regular job is known as quarter moonlighting.

Half Moonlighting

Half-Moonlighting is the practice of working more hours than a part-time job demands. Half Moonlighting is widely used when an individual dedicate fifty percent of their available time to part-time work.

Full Moonlighting

Full Moonlighting is the administration of two full-time jobs simultaneously. Some individuals even launch their own businesses while maintaining their regular employment. In some instances, a person’s social status may even be determined by their secondary occupation.

Reasons for Moonlighting

There are numerous reasons why someone would prefer to moonlight.

To Earn Extra Money.

This is likely the most common reason why individuals moonlight. A second job can provide a financial boost, enabling individuals to pay off debt, save for a home’s down payment, or finance a trip.

To Pursue a Passion or Hobby.

Some individuals may have a pastime or interest that they would like to pursue professionally but are unable to do so full-time. Moonlighting enables people to pursue these passions while maintaining their core employment.

To Gain Additional Experience or Skills.

People may moonlight to obtain expertise in a different field or acquire new talents that can be used in their primary profession or career advancement.

To Look Into New Job Opportunities.

Some people use moonlighting to test the waters in a new industry or try a different job before committing to a full-time job.

To Be Able To Change Plans.

Moonlighting can give you a lot of flexibility. They might be able to choose when and where they work, which can help people who have other responsibilities. 

What Factors Have Enabled Moonlighting?

Flexible Work Hours: During the Covidian-19 pandemic, a policy was implemented to let people work from home. After the pandemic, many companies have kept allowing employees to set their own work hours. Since employees no longer have to be in offices, many of them can look for other jobs.

Technology: Things like online video conferencing, cloud sharing, and online workplaces make it possible to work from home. This makes it possible for people to work two jobs at the same time because they don’t have to travel between them.

Gig Economy: In the gig economy, people work only part-time jobs. So, gig workers can do many different jobs. Because they only work part-time, gig workers have much more freedom in their work.

Person Working on Tablet

What Are The Arguments In Favor of Moonlighting?

Financial Benefits: People can make more money by working a second job. This helps them meet their financial responsibilities and improves their quality of life.

Upskilling: Working extra hours can help you learn new things and improve your skills. People with a lot of skills are usually the last ones to lose their jobs when the economy is bad. Getting new skills could help you keep your job.

Growing Opportunities: Getting a second job could give workers more options. Many people who have worked for the same company for a long time can get “tunnel vision.” That is, they couldn’t see anything but their own industry and company. People can gain a new perspective and learn about a new industry when they get a new job.

Building a Better Network: Having a second job gives you a chance to meet more colleagues and business partners. A strong network makes it easier to find work in the future.

Longer Retention: Some experts say that moonlighting can help people stay at their jobs longer because it gives them extra money, and they may not feel the need to look for a better-paying job elsewhere.

Social Life: A large part of a person’s social life is made up of coworkers and colleagues. Also, having a job could give you more social opportunities.

What are the concerns associated with Moonlighting?

Confidentiality: Data and confidentiality leaks are companies’ biggest problems with moonlighting. Employees who have access to sensitive and/or proprietary information about a company’s procedures and/or products may tell competitors about it, making the company less competitive.

Loss of Productivity: Working long hours can make a person tired physically and mentally, which can make them lose focus, be less productive, and forget about their most important job duties.

Misusing Resources: Employees may use company resources for a second job, which drives up operational costs. Also, this is not right.

Conflicts of interest: In the IT industry, conflicts of interest are a big problem when employees use the skills they’ve learned at their main job to help their competitors. Because of this, employers insist on having the right to their employees’ intellectual property.

What has been the response of various companies regarding Moonlighting?

Wipro: After discovering that 300 of its employees were also employed by a competitor, the business fired them.

Infosys: Infosys has issued a warning to its employees about moonlighting. It has, however, permitted employees to perform gig labor outside of business hours with the approval of HR and industry executives.

IBM India: IBM India has stated unequivocally that moonlighting is unethical and that it does not encourage such behavior in the workplace.

Tech Mahindra: If moonlighting permits employees to earn extra money, the company should have no problem supporting the practice.

Swiggy: Swiggy’s “Moonlighting Policy” allows employees to pursue gigs or initiatives outside of work that benefits their professional and mental wellness. 

Advantages of Moonlighting

Moonlighting is a wonderful way to supplement your principal source of income. This could be a wonderful option if you’re looking for a way to supplement your income. Here are some of the benefits of moonlighting:

New People And Opportunities

One significant benefit of moonlighting is the opportunity to learn new skills and perspectives in your spare time. You can take a class, learn a new skill, or pursue a long-neglected interest.

Innovative Skills and Perspective

A key advantage of moonlighting is the opportunity to acquire new skills and perspectives in your leisure time. You can enroll in a course, acquire a new activity, or explore a long-neglected passion.

Employer Evaluation

Moonlighting allows you to try out a new clinical site, practice partner, or prospective organization without making a long-term commitment. As a result, if you decide to take a position with them after completing your residency training, you may be confident that you will be a good fit.

Disadvantages of Moonlighting

Data Breaches or Privacy Breaches

Data breaches, privacy breaches, and internal information leaking are all major blows to businesses in this digital age. An employee may sell the data or technology to other organizations at a trivial cost that the parent company has factored into its budget after spending money, time, and effort.

No Work-life Balance

Obtaining a work-life balance is unattainable when employees use their weekends or after-hours employment to work on another project for various organizations. In the long run, they may become exceedingly exhausted and unproductive for both the firm and themselves.

A Decline in Employee Performance

Employees who work 9 to 5 and other part-time jobs are bound to become mentally exhausted. Employee productivity will suffer as a result of mental tiredness. Employees will be too weary of innovating or thinking outside the box, resulting in long-term losses for the organization.

Professionals Working on Laptops

To Wrap Things Up

The bottom line is that if your employer does not have a Moonlighting policy and you wish to work on other projects outside work hours, you should ask yourself first. Before determining whether or not to pursue those tasks, consider whether they are compatible with your major obligations.

Your ability to moonlight will be determined by the amount of time and energy required and your current employer’s policies; therefore, think carefully before committing to long-term moonlighting.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts.

Continue reading!!!

]]> https://penloom.com/moonlighting-what-it-is-pros-and-cons/feed/ 0 All You Can Do To Attain Better Mental Health For Employees https://penloom.com/all-you-can-do-to-attain-better-mental-health-for-employees/ https://penloom.com/all-you-can-do-to-attain-better-mental-health-for-employees/#respond Thu, 22 Dec 2022 06:05:41 +0000 https://penloom.com/?p=7049 Honestly telling, ‘Mental health‘ and ‘Workplace‘ are the two contiguous terms becoming a matter of concern nowadays. It is increasingly being observed that an employee’s mental health is crucial to their overall health. Indeed, mental health is the foundation for our health and well-being! Poor mental health is that out-of-sight matter, which is often overlooked, especially in workplaces, but not anymore! Also, unsound mental health and work stress can contribute to physical sickness.

Not just this, poor mental health can also lead to burnout amongst employees and extremely affect their ability to partake in both their personal and professional lives. Thus, being an employer, you must evaluate employees’ mental health and make all possible efforts to improve it. And I have made this dish out the best way to do so; keep reading…

Understand mental health at work

Like any other stress, mental stress at the workplace is also common, and if left uncontrolled, it can obviously lead to something big like depression or anxiety. Workplace stress develops unfavorably negative emotions, affects productivity, and evokes the inability to concentrate on work. In fact, it has even been observed that poor mental health disrupts employee relationships and affects teamwork and unity at work. Thus most organizations today focus on prioritizing good mental health as a part of their culture.

What causes stress at workplace?

To tell you the truth, anyone can suffer from poor mental health at work. Poor thinking, mood or behavior, anxiety and depression are common mental health problems. A number of ill factors in the workplace can lead to stress and the risk of developing mental health issues, even sometimes worsen the existing ones.

No doubt being a manager, you might have tried to figure out the root cause of stress among the employees but just adding the common factors;

In-house factors

  • Unrealistic workloads, short deadlines and high-performance expectations.
  • Lack of support and communication, unclear role and responsibilities.
  • Long working hours, poor work-life balance and lack of opportunities for career progression.
  • Poor management practices; chaotic, unsupportive, inflexible work environment.
  • Physical workspace environment like lighting, noises and ventilation.
  • Bullying or harassment and troublesome coworkers can be the major cause of the poor mental health of an employee.

External factors

Yes, even the events outside the workplace can also lead to poor mental health. Distress, domestic violence, relationship breakdown, financial problems or physical health problems can also impact an employee’s mental health as well as their work.

Promote positive mental health at work

Having a healthy and dynamic workforce demands employees to emphasize their emotional wellness in the workplace. The overall productivity, performance, attendance, staff retention and enthusiasm can go out of track when employees deal with poor mental health. To be frank, your employees need your support for better mental health. And, if positive mental health is sustained, nothing can stop you from growing your business. Below are the major benefits of adopting ways to improve mental health;

For employer

  • Robust and an organization
  • Enhanced working relationships
  • Reduced staff turnovers and better staff retention
  • Improved productivity, performance and creativity at work
  • Reduced staff absences
  • Better reputation as an employer

For employees

  • Better working environment
  • Improved work-life balance
  • Elevated self-esteem, morale and confidence among employees
  • Improved mental and physical wellbeing
  • Lesser risks of stress and depression
  • Recovery support for mental health issues

What can be done?

Poor work environments influence the burden of mental health conditions, but steps can still be taken. An ideal employee-centric organization understands mental health’s ill effects and reduces the stigma associated with mental health problems. There are a plethora of steps managers can take to help their employees cope with mental health. So let’s just read a few of those; what say chiefs?

Create a favorable ambiance for a change

Employers can always help improve mental health at work by creating an enabling environment for better change. And by that means you need to strengthen;

  • The leadership and commitment to mental wellbeing at work, probably by integrating mental health into the organization’s relevant policies.
  • The rights to be part of work culture; by aligning employment laws and regulations with international human rights and inforcing non-discrimination policies at work.
  • The investment funds and resources; establish dedicated budgets for actions to improve mental health at work and offer mental health services available to lower-resourced enterprises.
  • The participation of employees in decision-making; holding meaningful and timely consultations with them and their representatives with lived experience of mental health conditions.
  • The Integration of mental wellbeing at work across all sectors, embedding mental health into existing systems for occupational safety and wellness.
  • The compliance with laws, regulations, and recommendations; integrating mental health into the responsibilities of national labor and other compliance mechanisms.
  • The evidence on psychosocial risks and effectiveness of interventions ensures that all action taken on mental health is based on the latest evidence only.

A few more general ways you can opt to help your employees

Survey employees regarding mental health in the workplace

Many organizations implement stress management programs; it’ll be a good start if you do the same. This helps them deal with mental health, strengthens their enthusiasm, and reflects that leadership always cares.

how to improve mental health

Make time for triviality and relaxation

Whether playing games or just a random chat about life; spending time with employees boosts productivity and builds faith. Boss occasionally sitting with workers, laughing together, and eating together creates a positive emotional response. Plus, laughing triggers relaxation, consequently reducing stress all on its own.

Make sure your employees often take time away from work

Continuous and overworking sometimes leads to burnout; thus, taking breaks from work is a must! Challenge your people to rest, recharge and connect with loved ones so that they stay mentally engaged.

Always keep an eye out for depression

It’s been recorded that almost 70% of the employees struggle with depression, but not all of them are aware of their condition. Being a helping hand, if you run a regular eye on your workforce to find the sufferer, you can save them and the costs associated with health and productivity.

The need is real!

Believe it, today’s mental health at work panorama is really unsound! So always try to be the helping hand for your workforce, always available to provide support and help. Make sure your company provides employee mental health services, including individual and couples counseling and even group therapy. After all, they spend most of their time with you, make them feel the comfort of this workplace, and offer a touch of care!

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