There are many reasons why someone may have a second job or some kind of side gig when they’re working for you. They may have financial needs that are greater than what you can pay. They may have expertise that enables them to consult or engage with other businesses. They may have a passion project or startup that they’re nurturing while they work for you.
Whatever it is that is driving your employees, their other line of work can affect their performance for you. It is valuable to understand what your team members are doing and the impact it is having on their responsibilities for you.
Some workplaces (like mine) require explicit declarations of conflicts of interest that include any outside employment. Even if that is not a requirement, you may want to encourage members of your team to keep you apprised of their other commitments (including their work with nonprofits that might burnish the image of your organization).
Ultimately, it is important to know three things about any outside employment of your team members: the drawbacks, the synergies, and the potential for an exit.
The real and perceived drawbacks
When you find out that someone working for you has another job as well, that can be disconcerting. It may even feel like a betrayal. It is important to separate the actual drawbacks of this arrangement from your feelings.
Clearly, one problem with an employee who has a second job is that they may not be spending enough time on the primary work you need them to do. If your organization has a formal policy around the number of hours an employee is working, then you need to ensure that they are actually putting in the time. This can be particularly difficult to do when your workforce is remote. But, if you have concerns about the hours and effort, then have a conversation with your employee and and develop a system for accountability.
Another significant problem is the potential for conflicts of interest. For one thing, your employee may be taking information or client engagement and siphoning it off to their other venture. For another, they may want to bias their work in directions that benefit their other venture. It is important to create clear documentation of the way your team is making decisions and to require that employees be transparent about their other jobs to ensure that decisions are not being made in ways that benefit the secondary engagement of your employees.
That said, you also don’t want to penalize your employees from doing other work. You don’t know their personal situation, and an extra income may be crucial for their survival. In addition, the modern workforce gives employees no reason to believe that the organization will be looking out for them if times get difficult. So, employees should not be punished for looking out for themselves. Be sympathetic to your employees’ needs and ambitions rather than taking it as a person affront.
The synergies
A less obvious aspect of secondary employment is that it may benefit the organization or your team members’ performance. Some industries recognize this explicitly. For example, I have been a faculty member for over three decades. Universities often encourage their faculty to consult or do work for other companies. Often, faculty can work up to one day a week for an outside entity. At times, faculty members have split appointments in which they have named roles at companies as well as faculty roles at the university.
These arrangements allow knowledge and expertise developed at the university to benefit the broader community, bring prestige to the university, and can feed back positively on a faculty member’s research. These outside engagements also create opportunities for students and solidify connections between the university and prospective employers of graduates.
Similarly, your employees are developing additional skills in their secondary work. These skills may help them to bring new perspectives to the work they are doing for you. You are prone to think of the ways that employees are siphoning time and ideas from their primary employment to second jobs. Don’t forget that the flow of knowledge and skills can go in the other direction as well.
Is the second job an off-ramp?
Another reason to track the other jobs and side-gigs of employees is that they may reflect a passion project of the employee that they are hoping will become a full-time source of income and fulfillment. Knowing your team member’s goals can help you to plan for the future. You want to hold onto your productive employees, but the more advance warning you can get of an employee’s departure, the more that you can do good succession planning.
Indeed, if you suspect that one of your supervisees is working to create an alternative career path, engage them in conversation. Support their efforts in exchange for getting a longer runway to find their replacement. Having a few months before a key employee departs enables you to hire someone new and let your new team member get trained by the old one.
In addition, your employees’ side gigs are often in the same neighborhood as the business you’re in. Treating your employees well gives you the best possible relationship to the new firm they join or create. You never know when that positive relationship can be turned into a mutually beneficial collaboration in the future. Give your support without expectation of a return, but recognize that your good deeds may very well pay off down the line.
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