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Somehow I missed the beginning of the moonlighting thread, but I wanted
to throw in an opposing point of view. While I agree that my life away
from the job is, well, my life, I willingly took a position with a
company that does not allow its employees to freelance. After all, the
company has a consulting division and employees freelancing would,
essentially, be competing with their own employer.
I had interviewed with several companies that didn't have a problem with
the idea of me moonlighting. So why did I take this job? The pay is
good, the company pays overtime if your workload requires more than
eight hours a day, and I relished the idea of spending my non-work hours
on non-work activities--in other words, I saw it as an opportunity to
live a life.
Each of us has different priorities, of course. If moonlighting had been
really important to me, I wouldn't have taken this job. But I know my
company's stated position on freelancing, I respect that position, and I
have no problem adhering to it.