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Slashdot Asks: Should an Employee Be Fired For Working On Personal Side Projects During Office Hours? (quora.com)

Posted by msmash on from the let's-get-this-going dept.

An anonymous reader writes: I found this article that talks about whether an engineer should be fired if s/he is working on a side project. Several people who have commented in the thread say that the employer should first talk to the person and understand why they are working on personal projects during the office hours. One reason, as many suggested, could be that the employee might not have been fairly compensated despite being exceptionally good at the job. In which case, the problem resides somewhere in the management who has failed to live up to the expectations. What do you folks think? Let's not just focus on engineers, per se. It could be an IT guy (who might have a lot of free time in hand), or a programmer.

6 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. You were hired to work for THEM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not for yourself. You want to work on your projects, do it on your time. Why is this complicated? It's not.

    1. Re: You were hired to work for THEM by saloomy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Employer here. If my employees tell me in advance (and a few of them have), that they need to respond to a personal project when coding for me if there is a critical issue when on the clock, then I have no problem with it, provided they "clock out" during that time, and it doesn't severely impact the work they provide me, and my requirements are not urgent (like a pressing bug). I think having open and honest conversation is the best way for me and personally I think it helps me retain ambitious and entrepreneurial talent, but I'm a small time employer, and I imagine large HR departments can be PITAs and unaccomodating.

  2. Well, sadly, probably.... by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If you are a W2 employee and working on company time on your own projects, you might have more to worry about than being fired.

    If you are creating new content, inventing a new gadget, etc....and you do it on company time, you may find that you DO NOT OWN what you have created.

    Many if not most employment contracts/agreements have verbiage that states that anything you come up with on company time, belongs to the company.

    They may not fire you, but they will now own it and you won't make any $$ on the side for it....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  3. If he gets paid extra for overtime... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Different people have different arrangements, I'm sure a lot of people here are strictly 8-5. But in my world I'm expected to be available and on call around the clock based on the specific function I perform (it's a lot of hurry up and wait). So I may be working at 11PM, but at 2PM I may be free. I do not get paid any extra for overtime. So who is to say that I'm on company time?

    While the simple answer might be that I should always be on task during work hours, I strongly doubt my bosses would like me to just abdicate when a job finishes at 11PM and needs my attention but doesn't get it until the next morning, nor do they want to pay for another person to do it (even if that were remotely possible, which it isn't). So if I'm dicking around in the middle of the day, and I'm at the office just to maintain office hours, it should be assumed that I'm simply not on company time right now.

  4. Depends on the industry and work environment by RandySmith6424 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I for instance work for the government in IT and during holidays when the non 12 monthers are out, I am basically a paper weight at my desk all day. So I take online classes, work on a few outside client minor jobs, Test and run random network crap remotely from my house or just read a bunch of sports websites. I mean what is the difference between working on a side job or doing nothing at all while I have nothing to do?

    1. Re:Depends on the industry and work environment by monkeyxpress · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I once worked at a company where the embedded software team was based around one guy who was the ultimate control freak. They needed to speed up software development, so upper management kept giving him more people for his team. He refused to let them write any software, so his team just kept growing because upper management thought the problem was still capacity. One guy I knew well did a masters degree while sitting two desks from his boss. I talked to him about this (when he wasn't busy working on his thesis), and he said he asked his boss every day if he had any work for him to do, and his boss always said he would get back to him. He was on a good salary too, and I think the company helped pay for his course, and gave him study days to attend lectures.