I have a question about a recent policy that was posted in our company. The policy is about moonlighting outside of the company. Is states that Non-exempt employees are allowed to work jobs outside of regular office hours as long as no conflict of interest is present. But, the new policy states that Exempt employees cannotwork any jobs outside of regular hours at all. Is this legal? How can you tell someone what they can or cannot do in their personal time. What if their position doesn't pay enough and forces the Exempt individual to seek secondary employment as a way to make ends meet?

Then the exempt employee needs to find a new job and quit this one. There is nothing illegal about a policy prohibiting moonlighting or second jobs, regardless of exempt/non-exempt status.

Employees who work second jobs often can inadvertantly create a conflict of interest situation. There is also the issue of an employee being too tired to do their job effectively.

Yes, it's legal because there isn't a law that prohibits it. Exempt employees are expected to work whatever hours are necessary to "get the job done". It would stand to reason that if an exempt employee were moonlighting, there would be times when the second job would conflict with the additional time required to fulfill the job responsibilities of the first job.

If you aren't making enough to make ends meet, maybe you need to be looking for another job.