Today, news broke that Equifax mined records it collects from 2.5 million companies to fire dozens of employees for working 2 jobs. They dubbed the probe "Operation Home Alone." This is troubling to us on at least 2 fronts:

First, while it may not be illegal, it definitely feels….icky. It also sends a very strong, maybe unintended, message to employees and to customers. Employees will likely be less willing to share information voluntarily and will also likely be more paranoid about Big Brother watching them. And if I were a customer, I'd be even warier than I was after the data breach in 2017.

Second, this crackdown on employees who are working more than one job seems to be addressing the wrong problem. The problem is not that employees are working 2 jobs. The problem is that organizations are not engaging employees enough or paying them enough to garner their full attention.

Also, if performance objectives are clear, employees are meeting those objectives, and there is no conflict of interest (i.e., working for a competitor, etc.), does it really matter if employees work more than one job? Companies shouldn't own employees.

I would love your thoughts.