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I'll tell you, on how to see this differently.
1. read your terms of employment/contract and your office manual/handbook. see how your company sees you working for other companies/people.
if there's nothing that's mentioned there explicitly, the best practice is to be transparent about it and talk to your HR.
get a no-objection from them - companies will give you this if the place you are working isn't engaged in competitive business as yours or isn't building a similar project and isn't catering to the same clients or clients that your company is already trying to get projects from.
if you see 'conflict of interest' use your common sense. don't do this.
2. read your IP assignment agreement or the IP declaration in your terms of contract/employment.
see the exceptions that you would have already declared in the agreement you signed with your company.
if you start moonlighting after getting permission, pay attention this - because this is when you are opening yourself to your death.
if it has any tech or something that you did in your company - your company will own that exclusively and will not allow that to be used by the other company.
if you are going to use another algorithm or something that isn't your company's but theirs but use it here in your company -
you are putting yourself and the other company at potential IP theft policies, allowing your company to acquire it at zero cost while suing you and the other company to oblivion
so, declare them to your HR and get an exception signed so you can be safe.
3. use different machines for working and DO NOT BY ANY CHANCE use your company's machine to do that task or use your office property, wifi for doing that even with your own machine. - the company can and will seize it as their property and open it for future potential law suits.
4. be completely transparent about what you are doing, get necessary clearance and inform your HR and record them in an email.
5. after all of this, make sure your performance isn't dropping in your company. you will be in high scrutiny after declaring that you are moonlighting.
try to keep your boundaries. your manager will try to load more work. your coworkers will be envious of you. stick to your boundaries while ensuring you work productively.
6. regardless of what and how you moonlight, make sure it's legal, all papers are there and you are transparent about it to both the companies.
use your commonsense in everything and make sure you don't engage in anything that's conflict of interest.
whenever you say NO to conflict of interest, make sure you record that in email and keep a copy of it so that you can use them to defend yourself
'moonlighting' is always a nightmare and it depends on who you moonlight to.
if it's a small company just doing small services, your company's legal and product team won't even care. if it's large enough and a potential target, they'll use you as their scape goat to attack.
if it's a potential M&A target (mergers and acquisitions) you are the lure they will love to have.
do not by all means get in the middle of the battle of companies by all chance.
do not let yourself be used by your company.
use your common sense.
at the end, you are a tool.
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