Tech Mahindra, the fifth-largest IT services provider in India, reportedly encourages side jobs

After sending a strong "No two-timing, no moonlighting" warning to staff for nearly a month, the IT giant Infosys appears to have softened its stance on moonlighting or gig work. According to the TOI story, Infosys has written an internal email to employees allowing them to accept gig work outside of their day jobs—but only with permission from their supervisors and under the condition that it would not interfere with their work at Infosys or whatever Infosys does.

"Any employee who chooses to undertake freelance work in their spare time for businesses that are not in competition with Infosys or Infosys's clients may do so with the prior approval of their manager and BP (business partner)-HR. We rely on our staff to make sure that this does not interfere with their capacity to properly collaborate with Infosys. Employees are also prohibited from obtaining multiple employment or working in areas where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest under the terms of the Infosys employment contract."

Employees could accept outside assignments under certain conditions, according to the "No two-timing" idea that was first communicated in September, but the tone of the most recent message is very different from that of the earlier one and may indicate that the company wants to send a more positive message to employees. The report stated that the September communication concentrated on the possibility of disciplinary punishment, including termination of a job, in the event that an employee was discovered to be moonlighting.

Following a recent earnings call last week, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh stated that the business was developing more thorough policies around gig work while ensuring that contractual confidentiality requirements are completely upheld. This communication by Infosys follows that statement. The chief executive of Wipro, Rishad Premji, criticized moonlighting in August. Since then, the majority of the top IT sector companies have come forward to express their stances on the issue, with many describing the practice as unethical. He also mentioned that Infosys does not support dual employment and has fired employees who did it over the past 12 months.

The chairman of Wipro had called working a second job "cheating-plain and simple." For moonlighting, the corporation has let go of 300 employees. However, TCS COO recently said that taking action against moonlighting can harm a person's career and that empathy should be offered. TCS has previously described moonlighting as an ethical issue. One exception among the harsh criticism that moonlighting started to receive was from Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani. He declared that he did not find moonlighting to be problematic and that he did not believe it to be a common issue. It is unknown if Infosys would provide managers with specific instructions on how to respond to requests for gig labor. Given that Infosys is involved in almost every aspect of software, it is unclear how managers will determine whether a task presents a conflict of interest with the work that Infosys conducts, particularly if it involves software development.

According to reports, the business has built up a platform called Accelerate allowing staff members to look into internal gig work and initiatives outside of their primary area of responsibility. However, since these are internal projects, there are no conflicts of interest.