COVID prompted the IT sector to give the option of ‘WFH’ or work from home to IT employees all over the world. However, now the sector has realized the big-time scam within the sector. The situation has come to a point where the IT companies have learned a precious lesson, though a little late.
While the work-from-home option has been a boon in disguise for the employees who worked for not just two companies but also three companies at a go, it has become a threat to the IT industry. This is called moonlighting.
The concept of “moonlighting” essentially means employees taking up other ‘side’ jobs in addition to their regular job. While most companies have legal contracts with their employees insisting that they cannot work for other companies, the pandemic loosened things up as employees shifted to work-from-home mode, and monitoring them became tough.
Thanks to WFH, IT employees who could not dream of buying spacious homes are now owners of apartments that cost around Rs 1 crore. Many have also invested in real estate in their hometowns.
Though no one is complaining about their prosperity, the IT industry at large is concerned when they realize that there has been a data breach due to such developments. The algorithms of one company and coding have been shared with other companies, damaging the IT industry’s clean image.
Mostly, banking, fin-tech, and insurance companies have faced the brunt of the ‘WFH’ option.
In fact, after realizing the back-end operations of WFH employees, the IT secretary of the Telangana government has also made it clear that the vicious cycle needs to be stopped and expressed his opinion that the companies must set rules for their employees.
In all, the pandemic period turned out to be a golden phase for employees, while it turned out to be a huge scam for the IT industries. Now, all companies have decided to call back their employees to work full-time in their respective offices or are being given show cause notice.
