Unless you signed a contract that limits your outside employment, work for an employer with an outside employment policy, or are, in fact, in a religious order that does require a real vow of poverty you may earn, in theory, as much money as you want.

This free agent mentality is forcing us to ask ourselves some ethical questions about dual or outside employment. Let's start with the most basic question: Would you feel disloyal to your employer if you earned income from a different source?

Spending your free time giving guitar lessons, selling your watercolor paintings, or entering chili cook-offs are probably within the mental bounds for most. Unless you work for a guitar shop that offers lessons, are a commissioned artist, or work in a restaurant with award-winning chili, you are barely flirting with the concept of outside income. These types of activities feel "within bounds" for most of us because they are extensions of our hobbies, the things we do for recreation in our free time.

Profitable hobbies are relatively easy to justify. There are 168 hours in the week -- plenty of personal time to allocate how we wish.

Let’s move to a gray area: What about using the same skills and abilities that make you effective at your job to generate another income stream? Some of you will be on the "this is wrong" and "this is fine" extremes, with a lot of you in the “it depends” middle.

We need to talk about this.

In today’s employment reality, the riskiest career management strategy is to have all of your income from one organization – unless you occupy a critical role, possess skills that are difficult to find on the labor market, and work for a company with financial security. Nowadays, you need to be able to leverage your talents to make the income you want (and, perhaps, need).

In this right/wrong debate regarding outside employment, let’s start with the extreme. Some employees, especially those employed by federal and state agencies and institutions, must abide by policies (and sometimes laws) which govern their outside employment. Does your employer require authorization for dual or outside employment? Based on the policy you may be prohibited from outside employment (less likely) or required to seek approval for outside employment to ensure there is not a conflict of interest (more likely, if a policy exists). From US Legal Definitions these policies and laws “address concerns regarding conflicts of interest, distraction from job performance quality or scheduled work hours, misuse of employer's resources, and appearance of impropriety.”

When in doubt, ask human resources and your supervisor about the policy. You have nothing to hide when you are doing your job exceptionally well.

If your employer does not have a dual or outside employment policy, I suggest you use these five standards to guide your own ethical decision-making. They are:

1. No conflicts of interest. Career acts should be, ideally, separate industries so you are not tempted to (or unintentionally) compete with your current employer with independent contracting or freelancing activities.
2. Maintain excellent and high-quality performance. Of course, this is a given with or without multiple sources of income. You never want your other sources of income to create the perception that you are not doing your job.
3. Separate the time spent. Even something as innocuous as checking email for one career act while billing or being paid by another would be inappropriate. Keep these activities separate.
4. Do not misuse your employer's resources. If it feels as though you are over-stepping your bounds “borrowing” from one employer to build a different career acts, you probably are.
5. No appearance of impropriety. If you feel like you couldn’t tell your mother, supervisor, and newspaper reporter what you are doing, there is probably a reason. Protect your reputation.

Taken together, if you abide by these and have the reputation for being a reliable, excellent, hard-working and engaged employee, your employer will not likely care what you do in your free time (i.e., re-read the list above).

If you are like most, your career is your number one asset. For many, this new reality for careers is a more self-directed approach where your passions and talents are configured into income streams (intentionally plural). Set the most stringent ethical standards for yourself as you start to define career success by your own terms.

I hope this helps clarify an important issue many of you had. Thanks for the questions. Please keep them coming!

Paula