I have worked as a credit union for six years. The last three as a financial analyst. I have brought some new skills to the table during my tenure (one of the biggest is data mining). I have in the past month opened my own business and created a website and invited my boss to visit it. He was excited for me at first. Later he produced a copy of a policy from HR and told me to be careful. I told him that I had already talked to the top HR representative and he was fine with it. But my boss said that he simply doesn't know my job and that he (my boss) knows it thoroughly. I responded that I didn't see any reason that it would be a conflict of interest. He gave an example about a Loan officer working for another company. I told him that yes that would be a conflict, but I don't work in originating loans, bringing in shares or purchasing investments, nor do I intend to with my business. I intend my business to be almost exclusively data mining. He told me that anything I do here is the property of the credit union and it would be a conflict of interest to help other people get similar information that I have for the credit union. I don't see the problem though. It's not cut and dry like the loan example he gave. He finally got frustrated with trying to persaude me that it was a conflict of interest and said, "Do whatever you feel good about." Am I wrong? What do I do? I value my job here and I feel like they value me but I feel like I need to let my business grow too. Below is the HR policy on outside employment. I looked through the manual and can see nothing more clear than this. I didn't sign any contract that I know of. Your advice is appreciated.
"Although outside employment is not encouraged, employees may maintain other employment so long as such outside employment does not interfere with the employee's job performance and is not, directly or indirectly, in competition with or adverse to the business or interests of the Credit Union."
"Although outside employment is not encouraged, employees may maintain other employment so long as such outside employment does not interfere with the employee's job performance and is not, directly or indirectly, in competition with or adverse to the business or interests of the Credit Union."
