Do you know what your employees are up to after hours?
by Sarah
New research has found that nearly a third of British workers admit to moonlighting. Of these around 47% say they do it for the money, 25% as their talents are not recognised in their day job and 20% to broaden their horizons.
According to the survey, most workers keep their employers in the dark about their behaviour with 70% saying that their main employer was unaware of their other jobs. Of those surveyed 43% stated that holding multiple jobs was forbidden by their main employer.
It is not uncommon for there to be such clauses in contracts of employments, which require employees to devote their whole time to the main employer and not to hold other employment. Working a few hours in a bar at the weekend may not cause many employers too much of a problem but an issue can arise however in a number of ways.
The first way, is where the second job starts to impact on the first job. Ways we have seen this occur are with nightclub doormen or other moonlighting which is just that. The employee then finds it difficult to get to work on time or pulls false sickness etc to rest. These are of course matters of conduct which could land an employee in disciplinary proceedings.
The second way this can impact on the first job, is where the employee is working for a competitor or in a way which which may be detrimental to the business. Where the contract expressly forbids such action, this again may be a disciplinary matter. The other issue is where the employee is not taking sufficient rest periods between jobs which can impact on their health and safety.
The issue of moonlighting can be a difficult one to manage. Share your experiences with us.
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I think it is unsurprising that so many people moonlight - what surprises me slightly is the reasons people give for doing so: I would have thought that money would have commanded a much higher percentage than other reasons. Some interesting statistics, I would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on the issue.
Safety queen said at September 10th, 2007 at 1:46 pm