Wipro’s Rishad Premji on moonlighting trend in tech industry: ‘It’s cheating’

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji minced no words in criticising the trend of moonlighting in the tech industry. “It’s cheating – plain and simple,” he tweeted this afternoon.

The trend of “moonlighting” or working other jobs in addition to one’s primary source of income took off during the pandemic as many companies adopted a work-from-home model. Remote workers with extra time on their hands took up part-time gigs or found ways to turn their hobbies into additional sources of income – so much so that Swiggy even put an official moonlighting policy in place, allowing all employees to take up external projects for free or for “economic consideration”, subject to internal approvals.

But things appear to be different in the IT industry, where companies are worried about employees losing focus and productivity if they take up side projects. Birlasoft CEO Dharmender Kapoor was informed of one employee who was working seven companies at the same time. “It’s hard to catch such cases,” he told the Times of India back in February, when the case was first reported.

Now, Rishad Premji has offered his take on the trend of people working several jobs at once. “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple,” wrote the chairman of Wipro, one of the world’s biggest IT companies.

There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple.

— Rishad Premji (@RishadPremji) August 20, 2022

The software major is scheduled to roll out its yearly salary hike in September, the first increase since September 2021.