IT pay issues induce moonlighting. Ex HCLTech CEO Vineet Nayar
- ByStartupStory | November 8, 2022
Moonlighting is unavoidable, according to Vineet Nayar, founder and chairman of the Sampark Foundation and former CEO of HCL Tech. He blames poor remuneration pay and a lack of possibilities for creativity, despite attempts by Indian IT service businesses to combat the practice. Many Indian IT companies and many start-ups got their start as part-time endeavours by their founders while they held down full-time jobs, so it’s clear that the practise won’t go away anytime soon, as Nayar stated. It is known as “moonlighting” when an employee works covertly at a second job in addition to their regular full-time employment. Because of the flu epidemic that has plagued the world for the last two years, many people in the information technology field have been able to telecommute. Freelancing and side gigs have become more common in the IT industry, putting sensitive customer information at risk in certain circumstances. Nayar told Money control, “When internet entered into our lives, we protested big time fearing that our data would be taken,” a quote he attributed to the digital revolution. However, it was impossible to stop, as it spread to our computers, smartphones, and even wristwatches. As a result of helplessness, individuals adapted to it, rather than resisting it.Like the tide, moonlighting cannot be stopped. No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to stop it. The expert in the field stressed the need of comprehending the motivations behind this.
Although Nayar agrees that the practice of moonlighting has to be strictly regulated to safeguard the privacy of clients, it will continue to exist in some form.
Salary gaps widening
Nayar identifies three factors that contribute to the prevalence of side gigs in the IT industry: the rising disparity in compensation between entry-level workers and upper management, the absence of meaning and creativity in the profit-driven culture of IT firms, and the emergence of new businesses. Nayar stressed that an IT engineer’s remuneration is quite low for someone with 0-2 years of expertise. There is a desire among young engineers to do well financially despite the fact that their wage is unlikely to rise by more than 8 percent annually.
Where would you live and what will you do if I provide you a salary of Rs. 30,000 to Rs. Expense management is made more challenging when workers from lower-tier cities are relocated to higher-tier cities for employment. They wind up taking side jobs, like driving for Uber or anything else, to make ends meet,” he added. His next comment was something along the lines of, “Unless you boost your salary considerably, which IT businesses can’t due to margin constraints, there will be an urgent need for this person to discover economic needs to satisfy his or her ends.”Comparatively, the median wage package for new hires climbed by just 45 percent between FY12 and FY22, while the median pay for CEOs increased by an astounding 835 percent. The typical starting pay for a new graduate has increased over the last decade, from Rs 2.45 lakh in FY12 to Rs 3.55 lakh in FY22.
Apathy in the workplace
Companies providing IT consulting services are more profit-driven, but they lack a sense of mission since they are not necessarily creating new products. The level of disillusionment with these groups is at an all-time high. According to the vast majority of studies, workers are totally uninterested in their work. The majority of these businesses are driven purely by financial goals, such as increasing their bottom line. Nayar said that this lack of investment in workers led to a situation where “personnel are not aligned and become use and toss commodities.”
“Startups and the gig economy are the third factor. If you take a look at the history of all the main businesses in the Indian IT industry up until last year, you will see that they all had a very successful run. Nobody was at a loss for words as they described the inception of their own firms, and all of them were now gainfully employed. Up until it became a profitable business, it was just a hobby for me,” he said.Wasn’t that a side gig?” Doing multiple jobs at once, as you do now as a member of the boards of several different businesses, doesn’t that qualify as “moonlighting?” “Doesn’t moonlighting already exist?” Nayar asked.
Corporations implementing stringent measures
Major Indian IT firms have spoken out on the matter, and this includes industry heavyweights like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, IBM, TechMahindra, and Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI), to name a few.
Infosys has rules in place for workers to pursue “moonlighting” activities so long as they keep their managers in the loop. If an employee is caught moonlighting for another company, they will be terminated from their position at Infosys, the company had previously warned via email.In an email to employees, IBM India and South Asia MD Sandip Patel defined moonlighting and outlined the types of work that would be considered moonlighting by the company.When it was discovered that more than 300 Wipro workers were also moonlighting on client data, the company took swift action by terminating their employment. Rishad Premji, the company’s chairman, has voiced strong opposition to this.Meanwhile, TCS let its employees know that they should not engage in such unethical moonlighting.
The river can be managed by building a dam and releasing water at regular intervals to prevent the dam from collapsing. Nayar remarked, “What you guys are trying to do is create a dam and work on conflict of interest.”
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