Moonlighting isn’t the problem, it's a reaction to a bigger problem

Our guest author takes a holistic view of the situation in order to understand future trends.

I can't help but go back to the discussion about 'moonlighting' that was trending last week.

While it's tempting to pick one side of the debate, it helps to take a holistic view of the situation that may help us understand future trends. 

As has been established, moonlighting is nothing new. However, the worry is that it’s becoming quite rampant. 

From an employer's perspective, employees are doing just the bare minimum at work and then moonlighting outside. 

What they fail to recognise is that it's not moonlighting that's the problem. Moonlighting is just a reaction to a set of problems, which leaves employees with a few options in hand. 

Let's try to understand some of these problems:

1) Layoffs: It is a common post-pandemic practice that has made a large chunk of the workforce lose their sense of job security altogether. And, layoffs haven't always been because of bad global scenarios.

Irresponsible hiring, poor work ethics and over-dependence on investor funding (in case of startups) have also been the reasons behind firing employees. It always helps to build a survival fund through moonlighting, in case you ever get axed. 

2) Flexibility: Over the last few years, we’ve seen a drastic increase in the number of people taking up full-time freelancing. That's because not only does an employee get to maintain a work-life balance, but he/she also gets to choose whether to work or not.

Sometimes, you earn enough money to last you a few months, or you can actively choose a basic lifestyle to give yourself some much needed rest. You can also work from anywhere. Why force yourself to turn up to an office for 200 days a year? It's tough freelancing full-time, but it's also liberating. 

3) A total elimination of toxicity: When freelancing, you don't have to put up with a bad client/boss. Even if you have to sometimes, you can always choose not to work with someone the next time. 

4) Poor salary structures: Just take an example of a junior copywriter, who may get paid a certain sum to work with, say, two or three clients. He/she can make the same money, or even more by charging on a per deliverable basis to his/her freelance clients. So, it's beneficial for him/her to keep a full-time job, gather experience and moonlight on the side till he/she feels empowered enough to take up freelancing full time.

Unfortunately, salaries are still negotiated in terms of a non-existent industry standard and a little more or less than what the competitors are paying. Also, if your appraisals are less than the rate of inflation, then may God help you. 

5) Poor industry practices: In advertising, we have something called pitching, which basically means arranging a free buffet of ideas before the client can discuss money. And, if what you are charging is more than some other agency, be prepared to lose not only the pitch, but also your ideas to that other agency.

There is almost no moral compass on either the client or the agency side to have a value system that disallows this. 

6) Failure to address employee concerns: Most times, concerns from the middle management, are not addressed in time by the top management. You start losing resources and, before you know it, you have to rely on freelancers to get the work done.

Then your existing resources see how freelancers are doing well outside the system and how they are suffering inside the system. No wonder, even they would want to try their hand at freelancing. This loop seems to never stop, despite having some of the most well qualified executives in the top management. 

Combine these issues with the overall state of the advertising industry today, and you will get the reason why employees moonlight. 

Overall, if you ask me, the larger trends point towards freelancing becoming the norm over the next few years. The founder of Fiverr, Amir Guy, has already launched a platform called 'togetherr' that enables advertising executives to sign up as individuals, or teams.

Back home, platforms, like IndieFolio, are providing opportunities to creative people in the advertising business. Smaller startups are hiring massive freelance talent to get things done, without getting them on board full-time. Agencies are hiring freelancers for specialised jobs, or to mitigate bandwidth problems. 

If, as an industry, we don't take note of these problems at this point, we may increasingly become irrelevant to coming generations. As it is, we are facing a massive talent crisis.

And, if you don't see the irony in it, given that this country is filled with talent, then you may be on the losing side already.

The author is a creative director at Oktobuzz.