A recent study revealed that 85% of bosses do not trust their telecommuters, and several companies even monitor the activity of their employees. One of them, the credit information agency equifaxused its own databases to spy on its workers home office for months. As a result, the American company fired 24 people, after discovering that they had two and even three simultaneous jobs without informing them.
Mark Begor, CEO of Equifaxsent an email to all staff to inform them of the investigation and its consequences.
“Some teammates have been terminated for having a second full-time job while maintaining their full-time role at Equifax,” Begor said in the memo cited by Business Insider.
Since last February, the company implemented the scheme of hybrid work: three days they attend the office and two are remote. It even exempts them from face-to-face days for two weeks a year, so they can work from anywhere. This allowed some of them to have a second job without neglecting their work in the multinational agency.
However, company policy says that you are not allowed to have another job in addition to your position with Equifax, unless the company is informed and authorized by the company.
“As a result, several employees who violated our company’s code of conduct and outside employment policy, which were in effect at the time of the investigation, were recently terminated,” the CEO added.
The workers in home office were spied on with their own tracking systems
The company, dedicated to credit monitoring and fraud prevention, turned to one of its products to investigate staff. Specifically, they used the program The Work Number, which is used to verify employment and income. Its database contains the work and wage records of 105 million American workers, according to a recent company report.
Equifax spent months reviewing the employment histories of more than 1,000 members of its workforce. They found that at least 25 of them had more than one job at the same time and invited them for an individual interview.
In the report, they highlight that some of those who connected to the meeting claimed to be at home, but in the background it could be seen that they were in an office or were wearing the uniform of their other job.
Only one of the interviewees managed to keep his place in the agency and the rest left. Several of those fired belonged to the areas of cybersecurity and human resources.
According to a survey conducted in October by ResumeBuilder, 69% of remote workers in the United States admit to having a second job, either part-time or full-time. Nearly half said having this made them more productive, with more than 75% saying their side job was running their own business.
What does Equifax say?
Kate Walker, Equifax spokesperson, explained that the recent layoffs are due “to multiple factors, including in many cases their own admission that they had a second full-time job.” In an email sent to Insiderthe spokeswoman added that some of them accepted that they had up to three jobs at the same time.
“While neither of those jobs creates a conflict of interest with Equifax’s business, these employees were working additional jobs that required committing to a schedule. In some cases, a second full-time job that would make them unable to fulfill the full-time commitment at Equifax,” Walker said.
Mark Begor noted that “at Equifex we expect the team to be completely dedicated to their work.”
These layoffs could represent a savings of 3.2 million dollars in payroll for the company, according to internal documents cited by the outlet, which has raised suspicions about the real motives behind the investigation and the firings.
The case has also reopened the debate on the extent to which moonlighting should be acceptable in the age of home office.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.