Can I get fired for working on my personal business while on company time?

Is it OK to work on my second job while on company time? My second job involves building websites for clients and building websites for the sole purpose of selling them.

I can potentially lose a $500 sale if I fail to answer an email within 2-3 hours. I don't have an iPhone with 3G access, so can I get fired if I start working on my SECOND JOB while on company time?

What if I only need to spend maybe 2 minutes answering the email?

No. Your employer is required to pay you while you earn money from another job. It only makes sense.

You can be fired for anything. At the very least use your own equipment for non-work related communications.

Of course you can.

And when you sign contracts with certain companies, EVERYTHING you work on while on their time belongs to them. They claim all the IP. So you might be putting your clients at risk.

Use your lunch hour times (take off time from lunch and use it for the call).

Other then that - yes you can get fired.technically doing anything other then working for the company during company time is "stealing time."

However if you are not taking excessive time they likely will not care. If they do care they will likely give you a warning first.

As for the "potentially lose $500. The question is - is that $500 worth losing your primary job over.

Edit: DO NOT USE THE COMPANIES EMAIL FOR THIS. The email your company gives you is their property. They can read every one of your emails when ever they want and it doesn't infringe on your rights at all. Because it is theirs, you are just using it.

Of course.

in fact not doing you job is a perfect reason to fire someone.

It's totally NOT okay to do this! When you took your job you essentially agreed to sell your employer 8 hours of your work each day. Anything you do during those eight hours that isn't your employer's business is considered stealing. You can be fired immediately for this!

As another poster mentioned, your company probably has a service that monitors every one's emails to make sure they're not abusing company time.

Juggle several jobs so to make your earnings high. Then get disabled

I have seen people being fired for doing work for their second job on company time
It's hard to deny you are doing it, because employers can monitor everything you do on the computer.
2 minutes, 2 hours, it makes no difference.