Are employers allowed to contact you outside of working hours? The right to disconnect
Can your boss legally call you after work? With remote work blurring the lines between personal and professional life, employees worldwide face the challenge of setting boundaries. This issue has led to new labor laws in France, Spain, and other countries that decided to implement the “Right to disconnect”.
Working online from home has been a customary practice among the companies and institutions lately. In fact, some digital tools and apps became useful as a means to making online working possible –Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, etc.-, allowing employees and employers to create online meetings and to send messages. On the other hand, virtual offices like Workadventure started to adapt the real physical office into a digital environment.
The blurred boundaries between work and personal life
Nevertheless, some employers took advantage of this new practice that allowed employees and employers to work remotely and provoked the vanishing of the boundaries that separated the professional life and the personal life. Indeed, since homes became the new physical workplace, it has become quite challenging to distinguish between the times and spaces that belonged to the employers and to themselves.
Legal measures: Countries applying the right to disconnect
In consequence of this boundary fading, different unethical actions were pursued, and contacting the employees outside working hours became a specialty.
As a reaction against this practice, some countries found themselves in the position of creating a law in order to punish this exercise. France, Spain, Portugal, the UK, Belgium and Australia belong to the list of countries that decided to apply the Right to Disconnect, Right to Switch Off.
To those who were wondering how to legally refuse work calls after office hours, the right to disconnect allows employees to ignore and refuse work-related communications from their employers outside of working hours without fear of being punished. This innovative working policy encourages the employees to separate their professional and personal lives, redrawing the blurred boundaries between them.
The benefits of disconnecting from work
Additionally, this modern law allows employees to benefit from the rest time after office hours, boosting productivity and innovation during working hours. As a matter of fact, studies and surveys showed that high levels of job satisfaction can be achieved through the right to disconnect, reducing the work stress as a way to ensure the employee’s well-being.
“Findings show several differences between workers in companies with a right to disconnect policy and those without. A larger share of workers in companies without a right to disconnect policy said they experienced health issues such as frequent headaches, stress and anxiety. In companies with a right to disconnect policy, very high levels of job satisfaction are reported by twice as many workers and they also report a better work–life balance (92%, compared to 80%)” Eurofound.
How WorkAdventure supports work-life balance
However, Eurofund has also explained that the introduction of this policy on its own is insufficient and requires a range of accompanying measures. It is possible to think about numerous solutions to this problem and question.
How to set boundaries when working remotely? To give an example, Workadventure virtual offices allow employees and employers to change their status based on their availability, showing whether the person is online, busy or “back in a moment.” Moreover, a “do not disturb option” is available, and silence zones can also be designed and implemented for that matter. These remote work policies and this remote work culture could help employees and employers to set back again the work-life balance necessary for satisfaction and personal fulfillment.
To summarize: Working from home has accelerated the process that vanishes the boundaries between the professional and the personal life. Thus, practices like contacting employees outside of working hours have become common. However, some countries are applying laws that punish this type of behavior because the employees should be allowed to properly rest in order to improve their efficiency and satisfaction.