Moonlighting Among University Lecturers and its Multifaceted Impacts on Job Performance

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of the phenomenon of moonlighting, the practice of holding secondary employment outside one’s primary academic appointment among university lecturers. Moving beyond simplistic narratives that frame moonlighting solely as either a necessary economic strategy or a detrimental distraction, this paper argues that its impact on core job performance is complex, contingent, and multidimensional. The analysis is structured around a tripartite framework, examining the economic, temporal, and psychological pathways through which external work influences academic roles. Drawing on contemporary scholarship in higher education studies, labour economics, and organizational psychology, the article explores how systemic pressures such as precarious employment conditions, stagnant wages, and the commodification of academic labor drive the prevalence of moonlighting. The study calls for a reconceptualization of the issue by university administrators, advocating for policies that move from punitive measures to supportive, transparent frameworks that acknowledge the realities of the modern academic workforce and seek to harness potential synergies while mitigating harms.