KOCHI: The pandemic had sent everything into a tailspin. However, the IT sector managed to stay afloat and its work remained unaffected with the companies giving their employees the work from home option. A majority of the techies worked on the projects provided by their companies scrupulously. But some of them used this opportunity to hoodwink their employers. They started moonlighting to earn some extra bucks. This badly affected their performance and, in turn, the companies adversely.
“The mainstay of the IT companies are projects, mostly from abroad, which are worked on by a team. Every member of the team makes his/her contribution to the successful completion of the project. So, when a team member’s performance drops thanks to the multiple jobs that they have taken on, the quality of work gets affected,” said
Dayan Ipe, CEO, Waypoint Systems. According to him, his company came to know about the workers moonlighting by accident.
“We identified three cases in the Bengaluru office and a couple in Kochi too,” he said. Dayan said, “Moonlighting has become a big concern in the IT industry. The concern is not only due to the loss of skilled employees but also the reduced productivity level.”
The companies spend a lot of time and effort to build resources. “Hence, we have stopped the work from home option. We can’t afford to be lenient anymore,” he added.
He said, “I am not saying that all are moonlighting. Around 90% of the employees are okay. But
companies like ours work on projects which need teamwork. So, when we lose a member of the team, the entire project gets affected. All of a sudden, we find that we don’t have enough resources for the completion of the projects.”
Also, getting resources is a tough job, said Dayan. According to Binu Jacob, CEO, Experion Technologies Pvt Ltd, this is because there has been a significant shortage of skills. “The demand and supply ratio of skilled workers is skewered. This was not because of Covid. The demand for skilled workers was already waiting to take off due to the availability of digital technology and also the vacuum in the digital space,” he said. This demand, in turn, worked towards driving up the salary, he added.
According to him, during the two years of Covid, the IT companies hadn’t made much recruitment. “This led to a situation where the demand was over the supply. Another factor that played a part in driving the techies to moonlight was the entrance of cash-rich conventional companies into digital space. After seeing that during Covid, pure tech-enabled companies had a much better propensity to grow, the conventional companies too wanted to embrace the digital way of operation,” he added.
According to Binu, this further led to the creation of demand. “So, when the pandemic led to the creation of the work from home option and also with the organisations creating opportunities in abundance to embrace digital technology, people began moonlighting. Who won’t want to earn some extra bucks?” he asked.
Demand supply
Managers at tech firms claim moonlighting is mainly due to significant shortage of skilled workers. The boom in digital technology has triggered this further
oh no!
The realisation that their employees are working for another company dawns on the employers when they go in to register the names with the provident fund office