Because I doubt you would do anything unethical, unsavory, or engage in any thievery, I am sure in your employment contract they didn’t specify your specific hours during the work week to be available, so I am sure you weren’t being unscrupulous.
Really, no employer cares if you work two, three, or more jobs outside your working hours if they specify what those hours are, right? What do they care if you are a waiter at a restaurant at night, a backhoe operator on Saturdays, and a Hardware store clerk on Sunday?
As long as you are fully 100% available during the hours they specify in your employment contract, you are covered.
Right?
I don’t recall that there was a written contract, the hours were just assumed on both sides. Even if it had been there wouldn’t have been a issue for me since I wasn’t doing side jobs during normal working hours. Any contention would have originated from them assuming without previous written agreement that they hand an inherent right to control, influence, or even know what I did outside of business hours.
I wasn’t competing with them nor using equipment or information belonging to them for my business. When they found out, they just didn’t like it because it put me less at their mercy, not because I violated any agreements nor used anything belonging to them.