The line between work and personal life- It’s time for the Right to Disconnect!
The blurry line between work and personal life after Covid
The trend of working from home that the pandemic ushered in came as a breath of fresh air in the beginning. It provided a new flexible way of doing work that did not involve going to the office. What no one saw coming, however, was how the blurring of work and personal time would lead to the office taking over one’s personal life.
Flexibility (if not used in the right way) also leads to a lack of clear personal time that going to offices in person has assured in the past. Sociologists use the term “Third Spaces” to refer to places where people spend time between their home (First Place) and their place of work (Second Place). These are places where people build relationships, share experiences, and ideas, and also have a good time in general. This promotes a healthier society and feelings of belongingness and purpose for its members.
Churches and other religious events and places were places where this used to happen before but because of the way, the world is urbanizing right now things have changed. People do not prefer indulging in these regular religious activities like people used to do before. But this means that the “Third Place” is seemingly diminishing in urban spaces. The growth of work-from-home (if not used in the right way) culture has also reduced the difference between First and Second Place. Now home also acts like a place of work.
The Right to Disconnect: A legislation to create sharp and distinguishable boundaries between work and personal life
This increasing prioritization of work over personal lives is leading to employees now becoming burnt out, depressed, and discontent with their professional as well as personal lives. Even though the great impact of this issue is being highlighted after the pandemic. Many countries had started looking into solutions even before 2019 (the pandemic year). This can be seen through the “Right to Disconnect” bill that many countries including India are looking into. The EU is one of the first to implement this Right to Disconnect bill in some way or another in their countries.
The EU defines it as “a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails or other messages, during non-work hours”.
France was the first country to introduce the “El Khomri” law which supported the right to disconnect. Other countries like Spain and Germany are also adopting similar Right to Disconnect policies.
Supriya Sule, MP from NCP, introduced the Right to Disconnect Bill in the Lok Sabha in 2018.
This bill proposed the right for every employee to disconnect from work-related telephone calls and emails beyond working hours and on holidays.
Through this bill are not obliged to answer the texts and phone calls of employers after working hours and if they choose to respond then they will be liable for overtime pay.
The bill, unfortunately, could not be passed in India but there is still advocacy going on the same.
You can sign the petition here to support the campaign #RightToDisconnect so that we are committed To Ensuring A Healthy Work-Life Balance For Working Indians
Right to Disconnect’s impact on business
Though it is a noble cause it can be difficult to implement this strategy (in its vanilla version) in all industries. Apart from that there are some professions that require their employees to be on duty 24x7. It could be a better strategy to implement the right to disconnect for other corporate working professionals that do not have this requirement and still face the issue of their work taking over their lives.
Right to Disconnect is not just about the management not expecting a response from the employees outside of working hours but workers are actively encouraged to not respond outside their working hours. This is an attempt at changing the culture of the workplace where employees intrinsically are able to make a clearer work-life balance.
This not only benefits the employees but also the employers and the company. Making sure that an effective work-life balance is established can reduce burn-out for the staff and also increase productivity. Research shows that increased happiness at work and a better work–life balance increase the productivity of employees. The reduced pressure may also have other benefits like increased employee retention rates and an increase in employee morale.
Steps employees could take to enable a sense of balance
How can employees better focus on creating a balance and disconnect from time to time even if they currently are not able to do so?
Some possible ideas could be:
Increase the demarcation between the” 3 places”. Even if you are working from home dedicate a certain space for it. Take hourly breaks when you can switch off from duty calls. Join classes or go explore other areas that can act as your “Third Place”. This will increase a sense of structure and security in your life.
Take over a “disconnect framework” like Japan. In this framework, one employee takes over the other person’s work when one is disconnecting. This way everyone gets a chance to disconnect and the company does not lose out on productivity as well.
The Cultural Question
Overworking does take place in the traditional office set-up but because of the development in technology, it is becoming easier for workers to work additional hours away from the office.
The use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, emails, etc. means that it is almost impossible to escape work. The culture of overworking has become so prominent in the workplace that the Japanese have come up with their own word for it. Karoshi means ‘death by overworking’. This is not just a metaphor anymore because in 2013 a woman named Miwa Sado actually died from overworking for 159 hours in Japan.
In recent times companies in Japan have started changing the workplace culture by using many new strategies to stop their employees from overworking. Some companies like Mitsui Home, put on different tunes throughout the day to make sure employees are alert to how much time they have left before they should go home. The company puts the Rocky Theme at 6 pm as an all-day efficiency push.
Japan has realized that simply putting in hours does not equal to increased productivity or efficiency. Other countries have come up with their own frameworks for the Right to Disconnect. It is essential that cultural changes like these are targeted so that a systemic change is seen within the workforce.
Conclusion
It can be challenging to understand and implement these principles when one has never been exposed to them before. That is why we provide speaking, consulting, and coaching around Right to Disconnect and Digital Wellness. Be ready to make the line between work and personal life more defined. It is now time to live a life with a strong work-life balance and improved Digital habits.
-Chaitanya Nair and Rijul Arora
