God knows who termed the word – ‘Moonlighting’. I don’t want to spend much time figuring that out.

India is a country which does not believe in paying the right wages to workers. Irrespective of the industry the payment is always wonky. Since I am in IT Industry, I want to talk about this Moonlighting.

The management people think that it is very easy to work on the side to earn that extra income. If you think about it, the people who are working on the side must be good at what they are doing or they don’t have enough work at hand. Let’s take the second case – they don’t have enough work.

Not Enough Work – Whose mistake is that? Most of the service Industry is based on the fact that a resource is billed based on the work. Now, if they do not have enough work, were they not billed? How long does an unbilled resource be paid? I have very little knowledge of the industry experts paying the unbilled resource. My understanding is maybe a couple of months at max.

The company ensures it does not lose money and most of the time, it starts hiring after winning the project. Either they have in-house resources, or they get resources from other companies. The entire operation ensures the timely completion of the project. If a resource knows he is good and also feels that he is underpaid, the first thing that he would like to try is to make more money by switching the company or investing in the stock market/gold and other investment vehicles.

The moonlighters are good resources, they are the best in their domain, and hence someone else wants their service. This is not a typical project where you are hired for the sake of hiring. It is truly remarkable to take a side project, complete it on time, and get paid for the same. Unlike big projects, you need to dedicate yourself to doing this kind of project with a very tight deadline.

Now, if you think about why anyone would be unhappy with this arrangement? Why would anyone work more? The company which has employed the individual will feel that they are not getting the full attention and they are working on projects which the company may not approve. I feel that, it does not make sense, if at all the individual works for the competitor then it is a concern and if the individual has to learn and learning takes a steep curve then there is not point in working for that side project. It is always a good thing to be resourceful and take up other projects in the side.

Big companies don’t want the small companies to get access to such resources. Small companies badly want good resources who can help them build a great product. Now, this is a marriage made in heaven. Why can’t we be happy about it?

This has been the thing with the people in power and money, who dont want others to make something extra.

Sun gives the best of light and energy and Moon might not give that but then Moon also is very capable of doing magic. Let there be light by the moon. People with power dont steal that as well.