The right to disconnect entitles employees to have clearly defined work hours, meaning that when those work hours are over, they can truly unplug from work and are not expected to answer work-related communications.
Smartphones are probably the devices that have influenced our social behavior the most during the 21st century. Now even children and elders have smartphones and entire generations have incorporated this digital dimension in their daily lives. For many, this sustained connectivity represents a helpful convenience, for others it represents a source of intense social anxiety. Still, it is very safe to affirm that most of us using smartphones are now always available for contact.
A clear policy
Codify a clear policy that emphasises concrete aspects of the right to disconnect instead of wellness-like narratives. For example, what are the official working times, what is considered off hours.
Discouraging out-of-hours work
Employees should not be penalised for refusing to attend to work matters outside of normal working hours. In fact, managers should actively discourage staff from working or communicating outside their working hours, including vacations.
No work stuff in personal devices
Workers should avoid installing apps related to work on their personal devices. Besides this being a huge security risk in some instances, it also creates a blur between work and personal life.
Asynchronous communication
An organisation and its members must respect another person’s right to disconnect by not routinely contacting team members outside normal working hours. For email or chat platforms like Mattermost/Slack, they should expect that the person they are contacting will respond only during their working hours. In other words, staff members should become comfortable with asynchronous versus synchronous communication if they are contacting someone outside of their working hours.
Personal messaging
Bosses should avoid contacting employees by personal messaging services such as Whatsapp. Instead, clear channels of communication must be implemented and work issues should be solved in those spaces. If Whatsapp or Signal are used on a consistent basis because of work, then this should be consented to and only used on work devices during set hours. These conditions should apply to the entire workforce discouraging the creation of spaces where select employees are discussing official work affairs.
Dealing with different timezones
Employees should not be expected to routinely perform work outside normal working hours. While this can be difficult to achieve in contexts where people are working in different timezones, there are ways to coordinate the team that helps in this scenario. Staff members should understand the parameters of when their colleagues are and aren’t available. At the same time, there should be a clear understanding of the windows of time when all staff members overlap, which can be used to coordinate those meetings that involve several individuals from the team.
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