Infosys employee working as bike taxi rider in Bengaluru triggers online buzz as woman's post goes viral

A social media post went viral on LinkedIn after a woman who works for the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), shared her experience of finding an Infosys employee moonlighting, running a bike taxi in Bengaluru.

Chaarmikha Nagalla, in her post on LinkedIn, shared how she found a corporate employee like her working another job as a bike taxi driver and was stunned by the rider's professionalism on her way to the office.

“He arrived at my location, and called me: ‘Am I audible?’ in the most corporate lingo!” said Nagalla in her post earlier this month.

The social media user also mentioned that, unlike her other experiences, this time, the rider was “too enthusiastic”, to which she later found out that it was his first day at his second job.

“While it sparked curiosity, I was rushing to reach office. You see, I've been experimenting with bike taxis to zip through Bangalore traffic and get to work in under 10 minutes. But this time, the driver (or rider, rather) seemed too enthusiastic. Apparently, it was his first day, so I asked what brought him here,” according to the post.

Later during the ride, Nagalla found out that the bike taxi rider primarily works in the contract management team of IT major Infosys, who decided to stop “doom-scrolling” through Instagram reels and step out to earn some extra money.

“Turns out, he works at Infosys in their contract management team??!! But instead of doom-scrolling through reels during weekends or early mornings, he thought—why not earn some extra money and be productive?” as per the LinkedIn post.

Is moonlighting common?

Chaarmikha Nagalla also highlighted that this was not a one-off instance and that she had previously had an experience with an Uber rider who came up to her with a premium bike.

“And this wasn’t a one-off. Just yesterday, my Uber ride home turned out to be a premium bike, complete with high-end gear and a decked-out rider,” she said in her post.

When she asked the individual about their job, the Uber rider responded that he primarily works in a B@B event management firm and, while going back from the office, completes a ride to have some company on the way home.

The social media user also focused on her concern about people becoming a victim of loneliness and keep on hustling as there is nothing else to do to combat it.

“While it's great to see more people embracing gig work, I can't help but wonder—is loneliness becoming an epidemic? Not too long ago, we saw a Microsoft employee moonlight as an auto driver during weekends just to combat loneliness. And that makes me think: Are we covering deeper issues by ‘hustling’?” according to her post on LinkedIn.