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Are you working on your side hustle this week? If so, you are far from alone and your company is unlikely to take strict action, even if you are working during company time.
According to a new survey from recruiting firm Express Employment Professionals, 29 per cent of Canadians who are employed and looking for a new job are working on side gigs during company hours. Eighty-seven per cent of these employed job seekers say they have worked a side gig at one point in their career and 38 per cent say they would work on it during company time if they thought they could get away with it.
Interestingly, few companies are taking strict action. Only 11 per cent of employers in the survey reported firing employees and 5 per cent reduced salaries for employees juggling side jobs on company time, despite the potential impact on productivity and focus.
“I think what was surprising to me was the inaction of employers,” says Erin Brandt, co-founder of Vancouver-based employment and human rights law firm PortaLaw.
“So you hired the person to do a job that you’re paying them to do, and then you find out that on the time that you’re paying them, they’re actually earning income for somebody else, and they don’t get fired?” she questioned.
The policy problem
One key issue, according to the study, is that policies around side gigs and company time may not be clear or well-communicated.
The survey found that 50 per cent of the employed job seekers said their company has no policy prohibiting working on side gigs during work hours, and 21 per cent were unsure if any such rule exists.
“I would guess that of those 50 per cent, many of those companies probably do have a policy, but the individual isn’t aware of it,” Ms. Brandt says.
She points to several places where policies on side work might fail to resonate or even reach employees: some companies may have policies that aren’t emphasized during onboarding and don’t get signed, others may present policies as part of a large stack of documents that employees are unlikely to read closely and long-term employees may forget policies over time.
Beyond policy gaps, there are also legal and practical factors to consider, making firing someone for working a side gig easier said than done.
Termination can have legal ramifications such as severance packages owed, and there’s the added burden of re-hiring.
“The employer might look at this and go, what’s the cost of firing them versus what’s the cost of maybe giving them a warning?” Ms. Brandt says.
Indeed, the survey shows that 30 per cent of companies choose to issue warnings rather than fire employees working side gigs on company time.
Why people work side gigs and what to do
While Ms. Brandt was surprised by employers’ inaction, she says the prevalence of side gigs among employees makes sense.
“Particularly in this economy and with people’s expenses, it’s not surprising,” she says. “I think that some people need two jobs to earn a living, and people have hobbies or passions that are unrelated to work that maybe they can’t live off of but want to pursue.”
According to the survey, the top three reasons people pursue side gigs is to earn extra money to increase savings (59 per cent), to earn extra money for expenses (51 per cent) and to learn new skills to use at their other job (36 per cent).
For employers uncertain about how to handle employees who work on side gigs, Ms. Brandt suggests taking a measured approach.
“We often counsel that, if we’re not in the world of very serious misconduct – if we’re in the world of performance management – that an employee needs to be provided warning that they’re not meeting company expectations. The policy needs to be brought to their attention, they need to be warned that there’s a breach and they need to be given an opportunity to improve,” Ms. Brandt says.
Fast fact
Hidden health hurdles
25 per cent
That’s how much more time, on average, that women spend in poor health compared to men. Women have specific health challenges – from menopause to endometriosis and fertility treatments – that impact their quality of life and career trajectory.
Career guidance
When pension meets divorce
What happens when you’ve been building your pension for years, and then you get divorced? Do you have to split it?
According to this article, it depends on where you live. In Ontario, during a divorce, assets accumulated during the marriage (including pensions) are subject to equalization rather than being directly split. The law requires each spouse to value their assets and debts at the date of marriage and separation, calculating their net worth. If one spouse has a higher net worth, they make a payment to the other to equalize the assets.
Quoted
You’ve got (no) mail
“This is a workplace that is being indirectly squeezed by Big Tech. You have private competitors with a large non-unionized work force and very low labour costs. Postal workers can see that, and they want to get as much as they can in this round of bargaining,” says Adam King, an associate professor of labour studies at the University of Manitoba.
Keep reading to get a deeper understanding of how Canada Post has changed over time, why the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is holding steady in the ongoing labour dispute and how the worker strikes could lead to postal disruption right before the holiday season.
On our radar
Risky business
A new, smaller study shows that while 94 per cent of HR professionals report using AI in their operations, only 60 per cent said they have a policy that outlines the framework for ethical use and responsible deployment of AI. Sounds like trouble in a world where companies are being scrutinized for their use – or misuse – of AI in their practices.