Infosys reverses opposition to staff taking side gigs
- Reference: 1666335906
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/21/infosys_ceo_forced_to_see/
- Source link:
Speaking during the company's Q2 2022 results announcement, Parekh [1]read [VIDEO] a carefully crafted written statement:
Now for gig opportunities in the external environment, we support the aspirations of our employees to learn beyond their work.
We will support them to work on certain gig projects after the prior approval of the managers.
We are also developing more comprehensive policies while ensuring contractual and confidentiality commitments are fully respected.
However, to be clear, we do not support dual employment.
The CEO added that in the past year, the company has terminated the employment of staff who take on multiple jobs when there are "confidentiality issues."
[2]CEO told to die in a car crash after firing engineers who had two full-time jobs
[3]India's IT services sector wants workers back in offices – but not all the new hires
[4]IBM Consulting orders staff back to the office for at least three days a week
[5]Infosys noncompete clause sparks complaint from labor rights org
Parekh also gave details of a several-year-old internal gig-finding platform called Accelerate – an option the company would prefer its employees to turn to with their free time for "learning opportunities."
"Employees can look at what we call internal gig work – different projects outside of their main work," said Parekh. "On an average quarter, over 4,000 people apply for this and about 600 are selected."
The CEO did not specify if these "internal gigs" are financially compensated beyond regular pay packets.
[6]
However, according to [7]someone who has worked at Infosys, the platform has been encouraged since early 2016, alongside training, for those currently "on the bench" – being paid while waiting for their next project. After completing an Accelerate task, employees are rewarded with feedback ratings that can come in handy at evaluation periods.
[8]
The stern email discouraging moonlighting [9]sent in mid-September and seen by The Register was titled "No Double Lives." It warned Infosys staff that "dual employment is not permitted" and can result in disciplinary action, including possible termination of employment.
Moonlighting has been a heated topic within India's IT services industry since Tata Consultancy Services' chief operating officer, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, labeled it an ethical issue that damages the culture, resulting in short-term gain for long-term pain.
[10]
And Wipro [11]revealed last month that it fired 300 employees for taking on extra work. Wipro's executive chairman, Rishad Premji, called moonlighting "cheating – plain and simple" in a tweet that resulted in Premji receiving a large amount of hate mail.
IT labor rights org Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) and others have been quick to point out that when it comes to side gigs, it's one rule for the elite – Premji sits on at least four boards, according to his LinkedIn bio – and another for regular worker bees. ®
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[1] https://youtu.be/_n1xlhbCCwM?t=1142
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/overemployment/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/05/tcs_wipro_infosys_labor_issues/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/19/ibm_consulting_three_day_week/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/19/infosys_noncompete_clause_complaints/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y1Jtt2Az8Qt@qa5QwPA9AAAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.quora.com/What-is-Infosys-zero-bench-policy-and-accelerate-projects
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1Jtt2Az8Qt@qa5QwPA9AAAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/wipro_fires_300_for_moonlighting/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1Jtt2Az8Qt@qa5QwPA9AAAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/wipro_fires_300_for_moonlighting/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I did a piece of short-term work for Infosys. It took weeks on end to get the laptop. Then yet more weeks to get to be able to log into it.
After around another 6 weeks of constant chasing and haranguing various managers etc I finally found out what project I was assigned to.
After around another 5 weeks they terminated the contract stating that "I had purposefully made myself unavailable" and were refusing to pay me for part of the role.
However, I had screen shots of all email and teams correspondences proving that I'd tried relentlessly to be available so in the end they caved and paid.
All in all around 11-12 weeks of being paid to chase what/where I was supposed to be working on/which project. They hadn't said in the interview for the role as there were multiple projects.
All of which is very weird but when I went to the next role, I got chatting to a colleague who told me they'd done literally the same thing to him.
Also on a wider note - if performance is fine and there are no conflicts of interest then frankly it's no business of an employer what other work their employees take.
Same ,it took me a month to get laptop and software sorted. You have to be quite forceful with the people and not take no for an answer. It's wasn't a bad place to work but it does require a lot of work. Be the change you want to happen. As for side gigs yeah it's not really the companies business as such unless it's not working for a competitor or something like that. I did find it strange I was asked if I was a director of any businesses. As for staff in India and treatment thereof that's not an Infosys problem that's a country wide problem which we are to blame for. We introduced the class system. Good old imperialism...
Indian work culture is horrific, and Infosys seems to be the heart of that mentality from what I can gather. God help anyone who winds up in a "diverse" team, experienced it myself and every cliche in the UK not so long ago. Even the way the managers treat some of their "lower caste" reports would get anyone else fired for racism.