It’s both unethical and definately incredibly rude to your current employer if you’re attempting to establish or manage your business during any hour of the day that isn’t tied to your own primary job. Mixing the two during the day is a one way ticket to the unemployment office. If you’re passionate about this “side job”, that you must keep tabs on it during your empoyer’s time, then you should consider doing everyone a favor and do the thing you’re most pasionate about full time.

Definately keep your personal time to your own and the advice about lunch time activity fit in well. If you must do this side job during the day take advantage of off times where your customer’s actually might have better service 8am to 9am and 6pm to 8pm… you’ll find that offering afterhour responses can get you far AND won’t conflict with your day job.

There is no privacy or anonimity within your workplace… office gossip, casual conversations, overheard phone calls and a simple google search or errant blog post and you’re open to a visit from your primary HR Rep. Instead, focus on being honest and open about it, hopefully your ’side job’ can be benefitial to your current employer or be paired with other services that can impact both you and your coworkers.

It’s pretty clear with todays 2.5 worker per home income needs you might have to hold down a second job to keep afloat… check with you HR Rep and see if there are forms and policies that will keep both of you in the clear. A lot of companies and state employee services require a secondary employment form that must be filled out.

Your employer is paying for your undivided attention during the work day to focus on their business, job and livlihood… if you’re busy attending to your emails and customers then you are probably not paying any attention to your employer’s emails and clients.

Second, the American job market has change over the past 20 years. Many employers have absolutely no loyalty to their employees. At the end of the day it’s the bottom line that counts. As most business owners know, employee costs are the largest expense and the easiest to cut. People no longer go to work for life with the same company. Every working person in America rich or poor, employed or otherwise should always be looking for their next job or starting their own business venture. It is essential for survival in this day and age to consider having a side business. An employers loyalty is usually to their bottom line, not their people. Are you going to continue paying the salaries of employees you layoff for let’s say three years or until they find a new job??? I think not!

Why is it that the rich can explore better economic opportunity while everyone else is relegated to making the rich even wealthier?

The industrial revolution of the early 20th century changed the way we think about the job market. A large segment of the population focused on education and jobs as opposed to entrepreneurship. Those who stayed true to their entrepreneurial roots—such as those names mentioned above became wildly successful, while the rest of us got jobs (just over broke) working for these people. It’s part of the problem that plagues America today. We keep expecting others to provide stable employment for us.

Look around you for a minute. Massive job layoffs, foreign competition and the outsourcing of American jobs, lost benefits, 47 million people without health care, and lowering wage base. Need I go on?

American workers I have found are extremely loyal to the persons cutting their paychecks, but you can not expect them to abandon their search for better economic opportunities. The entrepreneurial spirit is what this country was founded on—that is of course unless you are willing to sign a contract guaranteeing employment and retirement benefits for life regardless of whether you are still in business or not.

Michael

Last I heard, California employers don’t pay anything beyond eight hours even though most employees work for 10 hours, giving two hours a day for free to their employers and in the retail sector, employers try to only employ people for 35 hours per week so that they do not have to pay benefits.

What people do in their own time is their own business. Literally.

Let’s have more people trying to better their lives and those of their families rather than everything being corralled into the pockets of the privileged few.

Employers may want to start looking at their employees as gifts to be appreciated and not chattels to be manipulated.

I’m sure Billy would love employees ’side jobs’ to benefit his company. Then he could ’steal’ their ingenuity and not have to pay for it. Do the words ‘modern slavery’in the work place ring any bells here?

Look closely at her 5th point, Michael regarding the office fax. This would clearly be misuse of office equipment for personal and unrelated purposes.

FAUX FAX: There are … computer. Otherwise let the person faxing know that they need to call first so you can stand at the fax machine because you are at work.

So let me get this straight. First the client has to call meaning that they’ll likely call your cellular phone so you’re taking unrelated business calls at work while you should be perhaps…WORKING? Second, standing at the fax machine? So you can intercept the fax the moment it’s received? That’s a shady practice at best.

I too have my own freelance web design business on the side while working a 9-to-5′er during the day. I invested in a PDA to receive email and voicemail to take my calls when I am at work becase I’m serious about my business. I return emails/phone calls when I am on lunch and breaks and I can still return phone calls in less than two hours to clients. I would never consider using the company’s fax machine which they bought and paid for to receive faxes which serve only my business needs. Nor would I consider taking a business phone call during the time I’m supposed to be paid for work I’m doing for my employer as I would be absolutely livid at having someone do that to me when I am paying them to work.

I would be absolutely furious if I hired an assistant to manage my day-to-day administration and found out they were using something which I paid for to help further their own success without first consulting with me.

If you understand and appreciate proper business ethics, you would understand just how unethical this is.

Furthermore, Anthony, your tone in your message indicates a clear hatred for employers which, if you are attempting to start your own business on the side is a sentiment completely at odds with starting your own business potentially becoming an employer yourself.

Bottom line, I spend my days working and my weekends/nights programming and I don’t even think about the fact that my employer doesn’t allow me to work my business during work hours. If you want to have a side business, sacrifices must be made and this includes pulling 4 hours after work or on weekends to return customer calls, emails, AND faxes.

I have run a group of three aviation companies in England very successfully, with very happy employees, who were not only paid well, but were encouraged to further themselves as much as possible. I even paid fro two of my flight instructors to take their commercial pilot’s license courses and test and blessed them as they left my employ to fly jet airliners. Last I heard they were both Captain on International air routes.

Now in the USA and a citizen, I have two companies and again, my employees are happy, able to further themselves as THEY wish and not as I wish. Employees make company owners wealthy, they should be encouraged to start their own business and helped if necessary. That is the point that is sadly lacking in this modern age of corporate greed and selfishness. I’m sorry you have worked for employees who have brain washed you into believing that you owe them everything.

Of course you could always send me your resume, maybe we might have something for you.

I’ll put it simple and plainly like this…
I’m in my late 20s. If I stayed at my J.O.B. until I was “due” for full retirement, it would be the year 2043.
With the advancement of technology and global opportunities, since the early 1990s alone, I’ve asked myself the question…can I really see myself at this job for the next 40 years?

I think her comments were great and creative and keeps the entrepreneurial mind always thinking and working. Isn’t that the real point…coming up with new ways to mind your business!