The dark side of moonlighting

Side gigs are not a new phenomenon, but Wipro’s sacking of 300 employees and other IT firms cautioning their workers against the practice have raised questions of ethics and legality. The tech industry, though, is split in its views on how to deal with the issue

Illustration by Nilanjan Das

By Ajay Sukumaran: A mid-level IT employee at an MNC juggles his well-paying job with freelance work, routing the additional income through his wifes bank account. An efficient worker who has never faced client escalation, he took on the extra work to repay his familys debts after he lost his father.