Technology

Why should a company be allowed to prohibit employees from having a second job

Different Topic IMO. If someone wants to work 9-5 at an office job, then go work at Target from 6-10 in theory that's fine. I don't support it as someone that's read the studies about productivity of the 40 hour work week being poor, I know that doing so is not sustainable and it's not a good idea. Should a company be able to stop you from doing it? I don't know. I'm open to the idea. It's a far more nuanced topic though. Along the same lines are how to treat outside of work drug use. I see no reason a person can't smoke Pot off the clock, but I don't want to extend that to hard drugs.

...f it doesn’t conflict with the first one?

That's been my argument since the start. Working two jobs during the same hours is conflicting. The stories I've read of high paid tech workers double-dipping during Covid were working both jobs during the same hours. Every time they ignore something from Job 1 because they are working on Job 2, it's conflicting. Same could be said for WFH users who treat it like they are home on a weekend doing chores, supervising children etc. It's not the same thing.

What is the difference in that case between working two jobs in the same industry in different market sectors vs working two retail jobs?

Usually a high level of proprietary or non-public information to start. But you wouldn't be working at Target and Walmart from 5-10 tonight walking back and forth between the two stores. So just at a base level they aren't comparable.

if I incorporated myself tomorrow...Do clients have the right to say I can’t take on other clients?

Absolutely allowed, but not likely. You are entering into a private contract with a company and agreeing between you on what you are do to be doing. Your contract is going to be far more specific than an employment agreement, and it's up to you to cover all the things they would have covered including: Health Insurance, Payroll taxes, Retirement, Liability Insurance, etc. Keep in mind creating your own LLC or Corp is different than being a 1099 subcontractor. There are certain IRS rules that you have to make sure are followed (well the employer side mostly) else they can get hit with penalties for misclassifying workers as non-employees.

We have some subcontractors on staff, but afaik they sign agreements on availability and are more or less treated like employees when it comes to work output. They may have specific clauses they've negotiated on availability or things like that, but that's also true of some employees too.