GS4 · UPSC Mains

Moonlighting refers to doing a second job, typically at night and secretly, in addition to one's regular employment. With work from home becoming a new feature of many jobs, it has become easy for many people to moonlight. Arvind is a software engineer in Comsoft, an MNC, and he works from home for his firm. Arvind has received only meagre salary hikes in the last two years as the business of Comsoft has suffered due to the pandemic. However, his expenditure has increased substantially as he got married and had a child in these two years. Arvind was finding it difficult to make his ends meet and decided to take up another job, apart from his regular job in Comsoft. He got his second gig at Mocsoft, who happened to be a competitor of Comsoft, and thus, started moonlighting. This side gig was very helpful for Arvind and his financial condition started improving. Arvind found that in Mocsoft, his role and responsibilities were quite similar to that in his regular employment at Comsoft. This meant that he could easily manoeuvre between two jobs without compromising the quality of work in either company. Shift timing of both the jobs were also different. To keep the two jobs separate, he used his official computer to work for Comsoft and his personal computer for Mocsoft. Two jobs gave Arvind financial space to save for buying a house, something the couple had always dreamt of. However, all his plans shattered and his world came crashing down when Arvind received an official mail from Comsoft informing him of his termination with immediate effect citing his second job as the reason for termination. Arvind was clueless as to what to do now and how to tell his wife about his termination. Similar is the story of hundreds of Arvind, who were terminated for moonlighting. a) Analyze the various ethical issues involved in the case of moonlighting. b) Do you think Comsoft's decision to terminate the employment of Arvind is justified? Why or why not? c) Identify various qualities which could help Arvind handle this situation.

20 marks · 250 words · 4 toppers answered this · seen 2024, 2025

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