Work on the side

[Vera]

Thanks guys. Interesting to hear your thoughts.

Believe me if I didn't have to work on the side I wouldn't, but needs must at the moment.

I have told the school what extra work I'm doing, but didn't actually realise it was such a necessity. Why is that?

It's written into most contracts it is a protection for the employer to make sure the employee doesn't do anything that could compromise their work for the employer.

For instance if you were doing long hours and your work suffered because you were too tired or your other work was to cause a conflict of interest or harm to the school, then as your primary employer they would be within their rights to ask you to stop.

[Stiggy]

It's written into most contracts it is a protection for the employer to make sure the employee doesn't do anything that could compromise their work for the employer.

For instance if you were doing long hours and your work suffered because you were too tired or your other work was to cause a conflict of interest or harm to the school, then as your primary employer they would be within their rights to ask you to stop.

There's also a more sinister reason that very few people think of but having witnessed it, it's always in my head, back when I was working in construction, a carpenter had a bad accident that was totally the companies fault but resulted in loss of a hand, unfortunately though he had been working long night shifts elsewhere for himself and our MD found out about this and used it to say that the long hours of working elsewhere had caused the chippy to be too tired to work safely thus the accident was his own fault, the company won the case and the chippy didn't get a penny.

[Vera]

There's also a more sinister reason that very few people think of but having witnessed it, it's always in my head, back when I was working in construction, a carpenter had a bad accident that was totally the companies fault but resulted in loss of a hand, unfortunately though he had been working long night shifts elsewhere for himself and our MD found out about this and used it to say that the long hours of working elsewhere had caused the chippy to be too tired to work safely thus the accident was his own fault, the company won the case and the chippy didn't get a penny.

Whilst I understand where you are coming from with this, try to put yourself in the position of the employer or insurance company.

Operating machinery or powered tools whilst tired is a very dangerous thing, from the employers point of view they had an employee who had turned up for work in a sleep deprived state and had an accident. It is logical to assume that the sleep deprivation was a contributing factor of the accident and as the employer had allowed for the required rest breaks, then why should they be held accountable for this accident?

Really it is as I said before, it is simply a protection for the employer to be required to notify them of any additional work you do outside of your primary employ.