When an information technology specialist at Enertech began missing deadlines and sleeping at his desk, it was the first time in her lengthy HR career that Jennifer Weber had to put an employee on a performance improvement plan because of a side hustle.
Rather than focusing on his work, the employee was putting all of his energy into making and selling barbecue sauce.
“We got complaints that all he did was talk about his outside job,” says Weber, HR assistant at Enertech, which builds energy-efficient products in Mitchell, S.D. This interfered with the employee’s job duties and disrupted his co-workers.
