With the advent of technology, remote work, and the gig economy, employees are finding new ways to supplement their income. One growing concern for employers, especially those with a field workforce, is the rising trend of employees working side jobs on company time.
This practice compromises work productivity and can lead to severe ethical and legal issues.
Fortunately, GPS tracking technology has emerged as a powerful tool to curb such activities.
This article will cover how time-tracking software can be useful in ensuring employees are focused on their primary responsibilities during working hours. We will also explain the concepts of daylighting and moonlighting and how they can affect your business.
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Is It Legal to Work for Two Companies at the Same Time?
Moonlighting is the practice of working a second job while employed, often without the primary employer's knowledge or consent. It means taking up an additional job other than the main one for extra income.
On the other hand, daylighting involves working on other projects or pursuing personal interests during regular business hours. It also covers employees who work two full-time jobs at the same time. This not only reduces productivity but also lowers the quality of work produced overall.
Given their frequent mobility and lack of direct supervision, field workers are especially susceptible to the temptation of moonlighting or daylighting. For example, delivery drivers might easily sign up for gig economy services like DoorDash or Uber and undertake extra work.
This is all while still clocked in and continuing to work for their current employer. It can lead to severe financial losses for the business and compromise the employees' service quality.
Although moonlighting is legal unless your employment contract states otherwise, the same doesn’t apply to daylighting. Working two full-time jobs at the same time is unethical, poses a breach of trust, and is potentially illegal. The employee may even work for the competitor, so there’s a conflict of interest.
To prevent such circumstances from happening again and depleting the productivity and morale of your staff, you'll need to take a more calculated approach and create well-thought-out procedures.
How Does GPS Tracking Technology Help Safeguard Company Time?
GPS tracking is an effective way to keep an eye on and prevent field workers from working side jobs on company time. One standout player in the GPS tracking and employee time management space is Timeero.
This innovative solution offers a range of features specifically designed to address the challenges associated with moonlighting and daylighting among employees.
Let’s take a look at some of these features:
Segmented Tracking
Among your top priorities as an employer is to ensure that employees are fully committed to their primary responsibilities during working hours.
Traditional time-tracking methods often require employees to manually clock in and out when they reach and leave specific locations, relying heavily on their memory and attention to detail. This method is susceptible to human error, potentially providing opportunities for employees to engage in secondary employment unnoticed.
Instead of relying on your employees to remember to punch in on time at each location, Timeero streamlines the process with its segmented tracking feature. Segmented tracking can ease your daylighting concerns: you will get all the necessary information on your employees' workday activities without the hassle of multiple clock-ins and clock-outs.
Users can clock in and out on the mobile app.
The software will capture all the necessary data without requiring constant manual input. This significantly reduces the chances of oversight and ensures accurate tracking throughout the workday.
Once segmented tracking is enabled in your Timeero account, you can view your employee's segments from the Time and Mileage tab.
The visual timeline lets you see how long your employees spent on each job and when they clocked in and out. You can see every location they visited, their trips, mileage, and time spent traveling.
Segmented tracking on Timeero.
If an employee takes a break, you'll also see it on the segment. You can see the start and end times as well as the overall length of the break by hovering over the break icon. This reduces conflict as you can verify when the break happened. If it was not authorized, you can follow up with them.
One of the most significant advantages of Timeero's segmented tracking is its ability to balance surveillance and employee privacy. GPS monitoring only happens during official working hours, not when the employee is clocked out.
This ensures that employees are accountable during company time while respecting their right to privacy during personal hours. Make sure to communicate this as clearly as possible to prevent employee pushback.
Real-Time Location Monitoring
With the best field employee tracking apps, you can track your field personnel's precise locations in real time. This feature is especially helpful for businesses hiring mobile workers, like delivery drivers or service technicians.
By tracking their exact location, employers can ensure the employees are doing work-related activities and not pursuing extracurricular activities or second jobs.
Always know where your employees are real time
Geofencing and Alerts
Geofencing is a powerful tool that allows employers to establish virtual boundaries around specific areas. You can configure it to send alerts to employees when they enter or leave a designated zone during business hours.
If an employee clocks in or out from a location outside the geofence, you will receive a notification. This ensures that employees are accountable for their location and the hours they work. It also guarantees that employees adhere to their assigned territories, preventing them from being distracted by potential side jobs.
This way, you can maintain a high level of oversight and control over your workforce’s movements and activities.
You’ll be notified when an employee clocks in outside the geofence.
If you want to take further measures to safeguard company time, you can block employees from clocking in if they are outside the set boundaries. They will receive an alert informing them they cannot log in hours since they are outside the work areas.
Timeero allows you to block users from clocking in outside the geofence boundary.
Historical Location Data
GPS tracking apps also provide historical location data, allowing employers to review past movements of their field employees. This feature can be essential in identifying patterns of behavior that may indicate an employee is working side jobs on company time.
By analyzing historical data, you can take proactive measures to prevent such activities in the future. Timeero goes as far as allowing you to recreate the route your employee followed when on the clock.
This way, you can tell whether they were doing what they were supposed to be doing and not on side quests. The breadcrumbing feature lets you see the precise time the worker clocked in and out and all other GPS locations they visited during work hours.
This includes all the stops and breaks they took.
Timeero route replay with breadcrumbs
Facial Recognition
Timeero's facial recognition feature adds another layer of protection against employee time theft. Employees clock in and out using facial recognition technology, ensuring the recorded time accurately corresponds to their physical presence.
This biometric authentication eliminates the possibility of ‘buddy punching,’ where one employee clocks in or out on behalf of another. It ensures that only the assigned employee can authenticate their time entries, promoting accountability.
Timeero’s facial recognition system.
Shortest Distance and Suggested Mileage
Timeero's shortest distance and suggested mileage features are your next level of protection regarding employees' business travel-related practices.
When you assign a job with the address to an employee, Timeero can suggest the shortest route to their job destination.
In addition, it will automatically compare the actual and shortest routes, showing you the difference in mileage. This minimizes the likelihood of employees exploiting work hours and traveling to do unauthorized side work.
See actual vs. suggested mileage
Any deviations from suggested routes or excessive mileage can be a red flag, enabling timely intervention to prevent daylighting. Furthermore, this helps employers save on costs from fuel expenses incurred from overbilling.
Other Ways to Prevent Employees From Working Another Job On Company Time
1. Set Clear Time and Attendance Policy
Small businesses are very susceptible to employee theft. In fact, according to the California Restaurant Association, 75% of employees have stolen from their employer at least once. Although quite specific in its purpose, we can approach “daylighting” similarly and try to prevent it using the policies established to stop employee overbilling or theft at the workplace.
The logical place to begin is the time and attendance policy. Start by checking all relevant local, state, and federal time-theft regulations.
You can seek legal advice about developing clear clocking-in and out procedures, breaking periods, and other essential specifics, such as cell phone and social media use during the shift.
Your employees must clearly understand their work-related responsibilities and potential disciplinary measures if they don’t follow the guidelines. Once you’ve established the procedures, incorporate them into your employee handbook. Have all your employees review and sign a document stating they have read and understand the policies in the handbook.
Depending on your business's industry and the number of employees working a second job, you may want to address this issue directly and establish a moonlighting policy.
Focus on the potential interference between the side gig and the day job while allowing your employees to make extra money and develop their skills. This allows the employees to earn additional income while still performing as expected for their employer’s business.
Your moonlighting policies should include statements addressing the following:
Interference with the main job. In the employment agreement, you can set out your expectation that the employees will treat the job in your company as the primary job and that they won’t let other part-time jobs affect their performance or working hours.
Conflicts of interest. Clarify your expectations that your employees won’t start working for your competitors while working for your business. A non-compete agreement can come in handy in effectively mitigating conflicts of interest and safeguarding a company's trade secrets and confidential information.
Your approval of additional employment. Although this may be effective to include in your policy, ensure it’s not too restrictive. Furthermore, if you include such a statement in your policy, you must apply it consistently to all your employees in similar circumstances.
3. Follow Through with Your Procedures and Disciplinary Actions
Taking disciplinary measures is costly and emotionally draining and can affect workplace morale. However, you need such measures in place should you discover that an employee is working a side job on company time or find evidence of other fraudulent practices at the workplace.
These disciplinary procedures should be part of your policy, and you should communicate them to your employees in your handbook. It can start with issuing a performance improvement plan or a written write-up, leading to suspension and termination.
However, just like when it comes to employee theft, it’s up to you to conduct a fair, accurate investigation and ensure compliance with all the relevant laws. Read our Guide to Prevent Employee Time Theft to learn more about this issue and download a free write-up sample.
4. Build Employee Morale to Prevent Daylighting
Employees working side hustles on company time can indicate poor workplace morale and low employee engagement.
Sometimes, the cause of such low morale at the company may be poor working conditions and unmanaged workplace stress, leading employees to question their trust in the company. High turnover rates often follow because of burnout.
If they feel that their companies aren’t fair, employees are more likely to engage in fraudulent practices, one of them being working another job on company time. And when they see their coworkers getting away with such practices, others will follow, causing the morale to drop even more.
You can also fight the low employee morale at the workplace by reimagining the workflow. Field employee tracking apps can help you achieve those efforts by promoting fairness and transparency.
Implement GPS Tracking to Keep Your Employees Accountable
Daylighting is becoming more prevalent as people try to make ends meet, given the high cost of living. Employers are increasingly turning to GPS tracking technology to solve this problem.
GPS tracking gives businesses access to real-time location data, enabling them to keep tabs on their field workers' whereabouts during business hours. This helps stop employees from working side jobs on company time and other unauthorized activities.
Turn to Timeero, a complete GPS time tracking tool, to mitigate difficulties associated with keeping employees in check. You can learn more about this software by reading our in-depth Timeero review.
FAQs
Is It Illegal to Be Clocked into Two Jobs at the Same Time?
It is generally illegal to be clocked into two jobs simultaneously. Employees cannot work for more than one employer at the same time under most work contracts and employment laws. This can result in problems like dishonesty, contract violations, and even legal repercussions.
How Can I Find Out if Someone Is Working Two Jobs?
Employers can use various techniques to determine if an employee works two jobs. One effective method is using GPS tracking during work hours to learn more about an employee's activities. Other ways include examining work schedules and asking coworkers.
What to Do if You Suspect an Employee Is Working Two Jobs?
Employers must handle the situation carefully when there's suspicion that an employee is daylighting or moonlighting. First, obtain hard proof using GPS data or time-tracking records.
After confirmation, arrange a private meeting to review concerns and get the employee's perspective. You can then handle the employee misconduct following company policies, either through disciplinary actions or termination.
Ensure your employees are working their hours, not only logging them.
Emily Maina is a tech-savvy writer with a passion for creating content. With years of experience in the industry, she is well-versed in the latest trends and developments in the tech industry. When she’s not working, Emily enjoys exploring the great outdoors or watching her favorite shows.
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