Moonlighter

A software company hired a remote full-time IT specialist. The management was content with his work for the first weeks, as he proved exceptionally professional, diligent and creative.

However, after three months, the new specialist's involvement began decreasing. It started small: the specialist took hours to reply to his colleagues' messages during work time and was often late for Zoom meetings. The employee frequently sounded tired and uninterested in calls and showed no initiative. His manager worried that those could be the first signs of burnout. However, the IT specialist assured her he was fine but kept missing important calls and messages.

The employee's productivity continued to decrease. He began calling in sick or asking for days off under far-fetched pretexts, sometimes several times a week. When he failed to meet a crucial deadline and tried to blame it on his colleague with whom they worked on the task, the management decided to investigate the reasons for such behaviour.

The specialist used a company-owned laptop for work. During one of the employee's visits to the office, the manager installed CleverControl on his device. The signs of suspicious behaviour popped up almost immediately. The specialist had a fixed work schedule, but user activity reports showed his long absence from the computer when he was supposed to be working. Analyzing his Whatsapp logs, the manager found a discussion of a project similar to the one the IT specialist was working on in that company. The project in question was the newest feature that would make the company's product stand out from its competitors. What was more alarming, the employee was discussing it with a senior developer from a competitor company. The manager knew that developer because he tried to poach him several months ago. A few weeks of monitoring Live Viewing and screenshots left no room for doubt - the specialist was working on a similar project for the competitors. Apparently, he was using his personal computer for the side project at first. Later, he relaxed and carelessly worked on both projects using the corporate device.

The manager went further and called the competitor's HR specialist. He learned that they hired the employee in question three months after he got the job at the manager's company - just when the employee's productivity started to dwindle. The IT specialist was working for both companies simultaneously, which was the reason for odd days off and failure to meet the deadlines. Worse, he was sharing both companies' best practices and confidential information - all for money. He felt that one salary in the first company was not enough for him, so he found a similar position in the company working in the same field. He thought he could do the identical tasks simultaneously and receive twice the money. The scheme would be perfect, but CleverControl helped to reveal it.