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August 30, 2024
Should Workers Have the ‘Right to Disconnect’?
Australia became the latest country to give employees the “right to disconnect” outside their standard working hours to support work-life balance in an “always on” digital world.
The law doesn’t strictly prohibit employers from calling or messaging their workers after hours. But it does protect employees who “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable,” according to the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s workplace relations tribunal.
Exceptions could be made depending on the seniority of the employee, their personal circumstances (including caregiving responsibilities), the reason for the contact, and how much disruption it causes them.
The law, which passed in February, took effect on Aug. 26 for most workers and will apply to small businesses of fewer than 15 people starting in August 2025.
Such laws attempt to restore boundaries between personal and professional lives, which many professionals have found to be increasingly blurred amid the rise of the smartphone and remote work.
“Clocking off used to mean something in this country,” Sen. Murray Watt, Australia’s minister for employment and workplace relations, said in a statement. “It meant time with your kids, time with your friends or just time to yourself to relax. But technology has changed how many Australians work. Many workers feel pressured to remain connected to their emails and calls long after they have finished their workday.”
He added, “It should not be controversial that workers shouldn’t be required to do unpaid overtime. The right does not prohibit employers or employees contacting one another. It just means, in most circumstances, an employee does not need to respond until they are back at work.”
Opponents, including the Business Council of Australia, said the laws “risk holding Australia’s historically low productivity back even further at a time when the economy is already stalling.”
More than a dozen countries — mostly across Europe and South America — have enacted laws restricting after-hours communications in workplaces in recent years, starting with France in 2016 as mental health and employee burnout have become common concerns. According to a 2023 Future Forum survey, 42% of desk workers and managers globally reported that they’ve experienced burnout.
Additionally, the Pew Research Center reported that about 55% of workers respond to emails outside of the workday. Another 28% do so frequently.
This past May, a bill that would have made California the first state in the U.S. to give employees the “right to disconnect” — including for hourly employees — failed to pass despite a Clarify Capital survey finding that 83% of employees supported the bill.
Opponents, including the Society for Human Resource Management and the California Chamber of Commerce, cited compliance and productivity concerns, charging the bill “fails to acknowledge the nuances of industries with unique scheduling needs, irregular hours, or on-call requirements” that would reduce their responsiveness.
Opponents also felt salaried employees would lose flexibility, such as the ability to take a midday break to support their child’s needs while fulfilling their work duties after work.
“As exempt employees, we’re paid a salary for doing our work whenever we need to,” employment attorney Joy Rosenquist of Sacramento’s Littler Mendelson P.C. told Bloomberg Law. “In a weird way, it really subverts flexibility for exempt employees.”
Discussion Questions
Should retail employees (whether store- or office-based) be expected to be “always on” as part of their employment?
Do you see more pros than cons in “right to disconnect” policies for workplaces and their employees?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
David Biernbaum
Founder & President, David Biernbaum & Associates LLC
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
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If workers are off the clock, then they have a right to disconnect and not respond to messages and emails if their contract states something like normal working hours. However, great care needs to be taken into how this is codified into law. For example, laws that ban the sending of any emails outside of hours are onerous and totally impractical, not least because people have different working patterns and work in different time zones. I think a lot of this should be left to common sense and agreement between employees and employers. It’s not really an area for state intervention.
Do workers have a right to disconnect? Well, that depends on the level of functionality and responsibilities that they have.
For instance, emergency responders and healthcare professionals often need to be available around the clock to address urgent situations. Similarly, IT support staff may need to be on-call to resolve critical technical issues that can arise at any time. These roles require a level of availability that makes disconnecting more difficult.
The term “right” implies a sense of entitlement that may not be feasible in certain professions where constant availability is crucial. It suggests that employees in these roles are being denied something they deserve, rather than acknowledging the essential nature of their responsibilities. This can create a negative perception of the profession and undermine the importance of their work.
Employees’ “off” times should be respected as much as possible by employers. In some cases, however, in order to serve the company’s most important customers, emergency situations may arise or information may be required.
Employers should strive to respect employees’ personal time while also ensuring that critical job functions are covered. This might involve implementing rotating on-call schedules or offering compensatory time off to those who are required to be available outside of regular working hours.
In my capacity as a business owner, and as someone who provides services to other businesses, I would not hire an employee who prevents me from contacting them during their off-hours. Db
You have that right now: it’s invoked by forming the words “I quit”; of course supporters are aware of this, but want to broaden the category of things-I don’t-have-to-put-up-with-to-keep-my-job, along with being raped or having to commit arson against a competitor. The problem is there are so many exceptions – including the big one that off-hours requests are still allowed – it’s akin to bailing out the ocean…with a sieve. I’ll put this in the “Europe is different that us” basket.
I mean, you are getting paid to do a job, right? And there are such things as “breaks” with break rooms available, correct? And one can clock out during a shift as well.
Of course this is coming up in California….another example of Government working to fix a problem that does not exist.
If you want workers to be “always on” as part of their employment then they need to be paid 24/7. No company owns 100% of your time. Unless you work for yourself then it’s a whole ‘nother story.
To do their best work, workers have to feel their best. Making space for rest, recreation and self care benefits workers and employers alike, improving productivity, morale and retention.
Let’s put the decision in the hands of our employees. The beauty of technology is that it allows us to determine when is best for us to finish up whatever we couldn’t complete during our work week. As working parents, we want the flexibility to be able to leave the office to make our kids’ activities and know that anything we don’t finish up, we can do on our terms. And let’s also set the expectation that just because we’re sending an email on the weekend, doesn’t mean it needs to be responded to until the people choose.
I see more pros than cons in “right to disconnect” policies. These policies help establish clear boundaries between work and personal life, which is essential for employee well-being. By ensuring that employees are not expected to respond to work communications outside of their standard working hours, these policies can reduce stress, prevent burnout, and improve overall job satisfaction. While opponents argue that such policies could harm productivity or limit flexibility, the reality is that well-rested and mentally healthy employees are often more productive and efficient during their working hours. Additionally, clear boundaries can help employees recharge and bring more focus and creativity to their work. For roles that require flexibility or on-call duties, exceptions can be made, but these should be the exception rather than the rule.
Doesn’t it depend on which side of this equation you are in? Business owners tend to work 24/7, and unless they take great care to respect their employee’s personal time, they’ll project their behavior and self-expectations on their hires even though these employees don’t share in the company’s equity. As to employees, especially hourly ones, once they’re off the clock, they expect to be just that, off the clock. Governments enter the breach due to the asymmetrical power structure between boss and employee. The former has the power to hire and fire, while the latter can always quit. However, these binary decisions and outcomes have adverse ripple effects on families, teams, and organizations.
The bottom line is that bosses need to set clear expectations for office work environments, and employees need to understand what constitutes satisfactory performance. The more transparent things are upfront, the less regulatory intervention is needed.
Sorry, I was off the clock so I could not answer on Friday. Seriously, expectations should be set in the hiring and onboarding processes. Furthermore, senior leaders should set the tone on this topic because lack of boundaries for non-urgent tasks can take a toll on employees. Each role would be different, and some key roles and executive roles would need to be available off hours, but I believe that many entry level roles would not need to be available all of the time.
According to Indeed, 52% of employees are burned out. Burnout can cause employees to take more sick days to manage and also may impact retention. Unnecessary communication and stress after workhours are costing companies money.
The question remains whether retailers or other businesses have the awareness of how their operations and always on mentality is affecting their teams and if they can self- police and build better processes which reduce off hours’ communications. Ideally companies would be able to manage appropriately without having another generic law that may be hard to follow for small or larger retailers.