Infosys reverses opposition to staff taking side gigs

The CEO of Indian tech services giant Infosys, Salil Parekh, has said employees will be allowed to take on external gigs if they secure company approval – a reversal of the position espoused a month ago when the company warned workers that "dual employment" could result in disciplinary action. Speaking during the company's Q2 …

[pimppetgaeghsr]

Indian work culture is horrific, and Infosys seems to be the heart of that mentality from what I can gather. God help anyone who winds up in a "diverse" team, experienced it myself and every cliche in the UK not so long ago. Even the way the managers treat some of their "lower caste" reports would get anyone else fired for racism.

[Anonymous Coward]

I did a piece of short-term work for Infosys. It took weeks on end to get the laptop. Then yet more weeks to get to be able to log into it.

After around another 6 weeks of constant chasing and haranguing various managers etc I finally found out what project I was assigned to.

After around another 5 weeks they terminated the contract stating that "I had purposefully made myself unavailable" and were refusing to pay me for part of the role.

However, I had screen shots of all email and teams correspondences proving that I'd tried relentlessly to be available so in the end they caved and paid.

All in all around 11-12 weeks of being paid to chase what/where I was supposed to be working on/which project. They hadn't said in the interview for the role as there were multiple projects.

All of which is very weird but when I went to the next role, I got chatting to a colleague who told me they'd done literally the same thing to him.

Also on a wider note - if performance is fine and there are no conflicts of interest then frankly it's no business of an employer what other work their employees take.

[Anonymous Coward]

Same ,it took me a month to get laptop and software sorted. You have to be quite forceful with the people and not take no for an answer. It's wasn't a bad place to work but it does require a lot of work. Be the change you want to happen. As for side gigs yeah it's not really the companies business as such unless it's not working for a competitor or something like that. I did find it strange I was asked if I was a director of any businesses. As for staff in India and treatment thereof that's not an Infosys problem that's a country wide problem which we are to blame for. We introduced the class system. Good old imperialism...

[Anonymous Coward]

I sent literally hundreds of messages on Teams & via email.

Persistence wasn't the issue.

[that one in the corner]

Not sure that the Empire can take the blame for the caste system - although the Raj certainly didn't try to get rid of it (shades of the class system), as one doesn't want to change such an ancient part of a noble culture (if one can take as much advantage of it as the previous rulers).

[Anonymous Coward]

"it's no business of an employer what other work their employees take.

"if performance is fine and there are no conflicts of interest then frankly it's no business of an employer what other work their employees take."

Maybe, Maybe not.

Even if there is no actual conflict of interest, sometimes it's just sensible to minimise the risk of there appearing to be a *potential* conflict of interest. Employees of UK subsidiaries of a typical US globocorp (especially those wanting to sell to US government) have probably been forced to endure compulsory "awareness" videos asserting that appearance of potential conflict of interest is to be avoided, just as much as actual conflict of interest.

See e,g, https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/appearance-of-a-conflict-of-interest or https://www.ibac.vic.gov.au/publications-and-resources/ibac-insights/issue-21/actual-and-perceived-conflicts-of-interest-why-both-matter or various others.

Isn't that right Mrs Sunak (plenty more before her, too).

[Phones Sheridan]

Headline:-

“Infosys reverses opposition to staff taking side gigs”

In article quotation:-

“However, to be clear, we do not support dual employment.”

Looks to me like they haven’t reversed opposition at all as reported. Or am I not supposed to point at the naked emperor?

[M.V. Lipvig]

The way I read it, they support side gigs so long as you are doing them for Infosys, and your compensation is an "attaboy" good for a good mark on a performance review. In other words, if you want a side gig, they have plenty of extra work for you, but think you're doing it because you like to work and not because you need extra money.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Son in-law

Of Infosys founder appears to be canvassing for a side hustle, going head to head with his former boss

[Roger Kynaston]

Re: Son in-law

even more serious he has successfully sidelined said former boss.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not mention this to The Board

God knows how many companies they work for.