You want and deserve, hard-working and committed employees. Though some will be better than others, as long as you’re their only employer (or you know about their other employment), things will usually work out alright. Moonlighting, however, can cause trouble.
If your employee is moonlighting, they’re doing another job potentially without your knowledge. You might feel comfortable with this – after all, don’t we all need a little extra money? – but do think carefully about the risks.
– Are you losing their loyalty?
Is your employee calling in sick more often, or skipping shifts unannounced? They may be working elsewhere and leaving you to pick up the pieces.
By staying with your company, your employee could be getting the best of both worlds, but can you handle their regular inability to show up when they’re supposed to be working?
– Are they sharing business knowledge?
Worse than flaky employee behaviour is the possibility that they’re sharing insider knowledge. Are they gaining insights into your business plans, then sharing them with a competitor? Are they using the work they’re doing for your business to complete their tasks elsewhere? Are they copying documents, or leaking important files?
When an employee is moonlighting with a job in a similar industry, there is a very real risk that they’re damaging your business – even if they don’t realise.
They may even be taking your customers. If they have access to client information, can you confidently say that they’re not contacting those same clients when working in their second job?
– Is your employee becoming less productive?
Even employees with the very best intentions will have lower productivity levels when moonlighting. They might be missing out on sleep to balance two separate jobs, and will almost certainly be dealing with more stress.
Even if they show up whenever they’re supposed to, giving their job their full effort, it’s almost guaranteed that their ‘full effort’ simply isn’t what it used to be.
If you’re concerned about a moonlighting employee, using a private investigator could help you to get the answer that you deserve. We could gather the evidence required to open up a conversation, find out the truth from your employee, and a solution that will work for both parties.
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