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If you don't have any NDA or such similar contracts with your main gig then there is nothing legally or ethically wrong with what you are doing - the way you described it.

Sometimes people are knowledgeable in certain areas for various reasons, it doesn't make you a bad person, it is the opposite, it makes you highly desired and sought after.

On the other hand if you do have a contract stopping you from working for competitors or transfering know-how or other knowledge then you might be breaking some laws/policies - which is not in the scope of this stack.

It is important to check your contract for things like this. Some contracts have a clause that any code written while you work for company X is owned by company X. They're likely to cede those ownership rights if you're just writing a little game or something unrelated to your main job, but in a case like this where you're writing something relevant and likely to make money for another company, there could be trouble and you'd need to discuss it with your boss before going ahead.

So there's no moral issue with using transferable skills from one job to do another. Taking the IT issue out of it for a moment, there's no issue with someone who fits boilers for the local gas utility using their knowledge of general plumbing to fix someone's bathroom taps "on the side" at the weekend.

There might be an issue if you were re-using an algorithm or specific code from the main job to work the side job (I do understand from your post that you're not), but again there's no issue with you simply being good at solving a particular type of problem easily that's occurred on your side job because you've seen a lot of it recently at your main job.

If there's enough similarities between the two jobs, you might have contractual issues, but that's a slightly different issue and it's been touched on by others.

I don't know where you are, but in the US the copyright on code by employees goes to the employer automatically. It's called "work-for-hire". It's very likely that, wherever you are, what you write for your employer belongs to your employer. (If you used open source software to write your contribution, this may not apply. Check with a lawyer. It's a lot cheaper than losing a lawsuit.)

This means that the software you wrote for the clothing company needs to not be a derivative work of what you wrote for the perfume company, or it's copyright infringement. Your precautions sound inadequate. Despite not looking at the previous code, your software has the same structure and is generally very similar. People have been convicted of copyright infringement for similar things, even when they didn't just write the infringed-upon work.

The software industry uses a "clean room" approach to copying, to avoid copyright problems. One team will look at the code with the functionality to be copied, and write a detailed spec. Another team will get the spec and write the new code. That way, only the ideas go from one room to the other, and there is no infringement.

This is about the legal aspects. Unless your perfume company and clothing company are competitors or potential competitors, this looks ethical to me. Unfortunately, that won't help in court.

My advice in this situation is to talk to a lawyer who specializes in copyright law. If you're in the US, the odds are that you can get a quick consultation for a reasonable fee through your local bar association. The perfume company might not care, or might not find out, or might not pursue a lawsuit for a variety of reasons. However, if they do, it could wind up being very expensive for you.

It may be far more complicated than other answers allude to.

Depending on jurisdiction you may (IANAL, so consult your lawyer) fall foul of laws that prohibit employees from competing against the company they work for.

Markedsføringloven §23 (in danish)

Har den pågældende fået kendskab til eller fået rådighed over den erhvervsdrivendes erhvervshemmeligheder på retmæssig måde, må den pågældende ikke ubeføjet viderebringe eller benytte sådanne hemmeligheder. Forbuddet gælder i 3 år efter tjenesteforholdets, samarbejdsforholdets eller hvervets ophør.

My rewrite in english (not a direct translation, written purely from an employee's view):

If the employee has gained knowledge of or gained access to the trade secrets lawfully the emloyee may not without permission use or ditribute such trade secrets. The ban is in effect for 3 years after the employment has ended.

So if any part of the algorithm or the way it is used can be construed as a trade secret the company may be able to sue for damages or at least have a solid defense against an unlawful termination suit.

Laws like this may exist in many jurisdictions even if nothing is mentioned in the employment contract.

The concept of trade secrets does not only cover an algorithm, it also covers the fact that it is this specific algorithm that the company uses.

It sounds like you've covered your bases with regards to the ethical and legal stuff. Your knowledge as a programmer of how to make recommendation systems isn't something your main gig can 'own'. As you didn't use the code from your main employer's codebase, you're pretty much in the clear.

Did I do anything legally or ethically wrong?

Transfer of knowledge, as long it doesn't include trade secrets or actual IP, is legally OK.

Use of your time in side gigs you may wish to double-check:

• Eight hours a week is not much - are you really containing your efforts into that time? How do support issues with your "side gig" work get resolved without impacting time on the main job?




• Are you burning yourself out and reducing your efficiency at the other job? This is not necessarily an ethical consideration, because an employer should not have control over what you do in your spare time. However, if you get no rest at weekends, or too many late nights, then your performance could well slip at the larger job.

An employer might still fire you with cause if your performance slips, or you juggle your time too much for their comfort - it doesn't matter whether it is because you spend your time partying or on a side gig. Likewise your side gig employer might appreciate the cheap product you have made for them, but might become frustrated at low level of support you are able to provide.

Check your contracts for clauses that cover conflicts of interest in general. It would be ethically and maybe also legally wrong to be moonlighting when you have signed a written agreement to not do so. Clauses in employment contracts requiring your employer to effectively be your sole employer are relatively common, due to concerns on performance and on leaks of IP (even if you fully intend not to leak IP, your employer only has your say-so that you are not, they cannot audit the work for the other employer).

Also, do bear in mind, that although you feel within your rights to act in a certain way, and it could even be legally backed up, your employer may decide otherwise. Perhaps they are still concerned about possible loss of their IP, and would fire you or even take legal action against you. Even if you would win such a case, you may not wish to go through the process or have it affect your main career, for the sake of whatever money you can make on a 20% part time role.

Bad scenarios could be more likely if you have kept the side gig secret from your main employer. You can do a lot towards clearing whether your employer thinks this idea is ethical and legal by asking them about it. You will also get your chance to frame the possible conflict of interest as something that you will handle professionally, before it gets discovered any other way.

It is probably more important to you that your main employer has a positive view of the ethical and legal status of your side gig, than the Q&A on this site.

I agree with all the above answers. But but I will add two more considerations: antitrust laws and conflict of interest.

Antitrust. If job A and job B are competitors, and if your country has antitrust laws, then you should evaluate if the knowledge transfer is related to prices, market strategy, etc. Ask if the knowledge transfer benefit your employer(s) at the expense of customers. Be certain you aren't breaking antitrust laws.

Conflict of interest. Decide if the knowledge transfer harms one employer. For example, if the knowledge that you are transferring is a customer list, and you want to redirect business from one company to another, especially if you own the benefited company, that seems unethical.

Check your contract of employment.

I know mine states clearly that I may not perform work for hire outside my main job. It also states that I may not engage in activities that are potentially directly or indirectly in competition with those of my employer, which would include building or maintaining a system similar to what I work on professionally for an open source project or charitable work for example.

Under either of those clauses, what you want to do would be a breach of contract with your employer, not just a ground for instant termination but also for having to pay quite a lot of money in damages to your employer.

Mind that some contracts go way beyond what's legally acceptable in such clauses, and a court might then decide to deem the clause inapplicable, but that's for lawyers and judges to decide, not for you.
For example I once was offered a contract that stated that I would not be allowed to perform my profession for 10 years after leaving their employ through any means (so even if they laid me off rather than me quitting). After consultation with experts in applicable law and getting letters from them, they were forced to remove that clause.

So check your contract carefully, it's almost certainly not something you're allowed to do for a commercial entity, and possibly you won't be allowed to do it for a non-profit or other charitable work either.

If you have signed a non-compete or NDA with your main employer it could be legally troubling.

But if you had signed such contracts as part of your current job you would supposedly be compensated enough to not have to think about getting a side gig in the first place! At least you should demand significant increase in salary if any of those enter the table of negotiations. Because they will limit your future freedoms and possibilities on the job market.

From an ethical stand point...

If it would not be allowed to use knowledge you have acquired previously in new jobs, how would anyone ever manage to improve and do better stuff? I learned this in university project, maybe it would be unethical towards department to use knowledge in this new job. The education and job markets would suffer greatly if everyone had to avoid using their knowledge with respect to their former masters. Education for one would be rendered quite useless.

Besides the legal considerations - which some of the more skeptical answers have already touched on - I also feel this approach is a bit unethical. Having been a consultant for most of the past twenty years I would not code something similar to what I am doing for another client. The forty-ish hours per week company is apparently unaware of -and likely an unwilling party to - what amounts to subsidizing the side work.