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Workers could ignore emails and messages from their bosses at night and on weekends under a policy proposed by Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the UK opposition Labor Party. Unlike France, Spain and Ireland, where there are formal limits on electronic contact outside hours, there is no right to switch off in the UK. Instead, protections for workers come through “limits on working hours, entitlement to regular breaks, the right to respect for private and family life, and an employer’s duty to care for the health and safety of workers,” Clough said. The employment practice of law firm Linklaters, says Halls.
Proponents of rules enabling workers to disconnect say the pressure on employers to keep in touch has intensified since homeworking increased due to the pandemic. Managers and professional occupations are “contacted most frequently outside of hours,” says John Boyes, a labor economist at the CIPD organization for HR professionals — a trade-off for status and pay.
There are still very few details on Labor’s proposals. Will Strong, director of research and policy at the think-tank, Autonomy, says punishing employers for violating the right to disconnect would send a “powerful signal”, and help curb “unpaid or undocumented work”. Can get However Andrew Pax, deputy general secretary of Prospect, the science and engineering union which struck a deal with the Scottish Civil Service on the issue, has concerns about the prescriptive rules. “We want to see employers discussing digital boundaries with employees,[thinking]about the digital implications of employees working when they are not on duty, or regularly contacting them When they’re not on shift.”
Some fear laws on communication outside of hours may be counterproductive, reversing the benefits in flexible working. Matthew Goddard, managing director of children’s food company Organix, says it should be up to companies to set their own policies. “Globalization means that for many of us, the 9-5 rhythm is no longer effective or possible.”
Where companies have set their policy, it doesn’t necessarily go down well. Employees at German carmaker VW find its work phone policy, which locks employees’ access to email on work phones via a “server lock” when outside normal hours, too difficult to do flexible working. It happens. Introduced in 2011, the block applies between 6.15 pm to 7.00 am.
In practice, the rules may prove flexible – in France, for example, small businesses are exempt and, broadly speaking, the law serves to highlight the issue rather than penalize employers.
The Financial Times spoke to managers about their own working practices and views on the law.
Colin Hunt, CEO, AIB
© Mark Dugan / FT
In 2020, Ireland’s second largest bank, AIB, was the first company in the country to introduce the right to disconnect. But Hunt says his own efforts to switch off are a progress.
He admits that “I go out of my way to try”, and makes time for important school events for his three children, aged 10 to 14. “They are considered very important meetings,” he says.
Hunt tries to schedule holidays, usually during quieter times of the year, and shut down completely—bar the “occasions” when he has to jump on a call.
During the week, he typically works a 12-hour day which is “very full”. “But whenever I get home, I try to leave work behind. I try to do a specific split.
Hunt says the hours employees are contacted depend on their roles. “If I need to speak with a member of the executive committee outside of office hours, I will. On the rare occasions I need to be contacted, I will call rather than email.
He aims to keep his weekend work-free, though admits: “If there’s anything to deal with, my team have ways of making sure I’m contactable.”
Michael Gaynor, CEO, Toyota Financial Services Ireland
Afraid of forgetting something important at work, Gaynor would wake up in the middle of the night and write a note or send herself an email.
He now finds that he “can’t solve a problem at 11 p.m. or 4 a.m. – I’ve trained myself not to think about it until after I wake up”.
He says he will have to encourage employees to go home from the office “all the time.” “I need to know why someone is working late. , , Because it’s not something we want people to get used to.
Working It Newsletter
Sign up Subscribe to the Working It newsletter for everything you need to get ahead at work, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday
Gaynor has practiced what he preached before Ireland began “right to disconnect” law in 2021, largely to spend time with his children, aged nine and 12, and because he puts a high premium on mental health and wellbeing for himself and his employees. “Everyone has the right to completely separate and log off,” he says.
Despite working for a Japanese company – Japan is famous for office workers working long hours – and managing an eight-hour time difference with colleagues there, Gaynor is committed to making sure That he and his staff take time for themselves.
Employees who attempt to send email outside of normal office hours receive a prompt suggesting that they schedule an appointment during the work day. “My director of operations is currently on annual leave. . . . I set a timer to not come to his inbox (email) at 9 a.m. Wednesdays, when I know he’s back in the office, so I’ve told him the day before. time to come during,” says Gaynor.
He can check email in the evening. “If there’s something important, I’ll call. But (otherwise) I certainly don’t answer, not anymore.
Izzy Obeng, Founder & CEO, FounderVine
© Lewis Patrick / Black Cultural Archives
Obeng expects 25 colleagues to be “reasonably available” at his small London-based consultancy and says the company, which helps start-ups, will deliver “a lot of events outside traditional working hours”. But his focus is “about being flexible”. Parents can come later and will instead answer emails in the evening.
She suggests that the rules are “better suited to traditional (corporate) environments where people look to 9 to 5”. She says that tech companies and start-ups need to be more nimble. “You’re chasing opportunities. You often don’t have the resources that a larger organization does. People work in multiple roles. They may need to be more available.
However, she encourages employees to let her know their preferred approach to communication, perhaps phone calls or Slack messages, and share when they’re out of touch. A coworker drives to school and logs on later. The other prefers to take time off during the week and work on the weekend. Employees complete time sheets to let managers know when they are overworked. “We have a culture that people can take time off in return,” says Obeng.
When it comes to her personal tech use, she says: “You think about work-life balance differently as an entrepreneur. Work and life (are not) somewhat different.”
Danny Harmer, Chief People Officer, Aviva
Harmer worries that any right-to-disconnect law would be too blunt for businesses that operate across time zones or respond to 24-hour customer demands. This should clarify “the problem you are trying to solve”.
Aviva doesn’t have a formal policy on out-of-hours communication and Harmer says employees are guided by the company culture, which is set at the top. “It is very rare that I see an email from the group CEO over the weekend. If she contacts us, it’s because we need to dial or get stuck.
Harmer says employers need to discuss the expectations around flexible working. “Always being on is not healthy. There are layers of understanding. I would hate for anyone to feel like they can’t approach their boss for advice.
If someone on Hammer’s team sends an email late at night, she checks in to ask why. There’s no pressure to respond to emails that say “still create an expectation.”
Microsoft Teams shows the hours people work. “You get data at the team level to see what proportion is spent on meetings, how much is on key hours, and you can see if there’s a problem.”
Lisa Quest, Head of UK and Ireland, Oliver Wyman
© The Pipeline
Quest says any changes should be made in consultation with a diverse set of businesses to ensure no one is disproportionately affected. “What may work for one may not work for another”.
She “didn’t really look into” the right-to-disconnect rules in Ireland, where she oversees the consulting teams.
This year the consultancy has prepared a Red Amber Green (RAG) framework. Every Friday, consultants grade the intensity of the previous working week. Red means unstable and the quest has been flagged to reduce workload.
She insists that companies should make their own rules regarding working hours. “We implemented the RAG system in consultation with our employees so that there was something that worked for everyone.”
In her own life, she has a spot by the door where she and her husband put their phones after they finish work so they can spend time with their young children, though she’ll check her email afterward. Customers have their personal number so they can call on the weekend in case of a crisis. “This never happened.”
[ad_1]
Workers could ignore emails and messages from their bosses at night and on weekends under a policy proposed by Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the UK opposition Labor Party. Unlike France, Spain and Ireland, where there are formal limits on electronic contact outside hours, there is no right to switch off in the UK. Instead, protections for workers come through “limits on working hours, entitlement to regular breaks, the right to respect for private and family life, and an employer’s duty to care for the health and safety of workers,” Clough said. The employment practice of law firm Linklaters, says Halls.
Proponents of rules enabling workers to disconnect say the pressure on employers to keep in touch has intensified since homeworking increased due to the pandemic. Managers and professional occupations are “contacted most frequently outside of hours,” says John Boyes, a labor economist at the CIPD organization for HR professionals — a trade-off for status and pay.
There are still very few details on Labor’s proposals. Will Strong, director of research and policy at the think-tank, Autonomy, says punishing employers for violating the right to disconnect would send a “powerful signal”, and help curb “unpaid or undocumented work”. Can get However Andrew Pax, deputy general secretary of Prospect, the science and engineering union which struck a deal with the Scottish Civil Service on the issue, has concerns about the prescriptive rules. “We want to see employers discussing digital boundaries with employees,[thinking]about the digital implications of employees working when they are not on duty, or regularly contacting them When they’re not on shift.”
Some fear laws on communication outside of hours may be counterproductive, reversing the benefits in flexible working. Matthew Goddard, managing director of children’s food company Organix, says it should be up to companies to set their own policies. “Globalization means that for many of us, the 9-5 rhythm is no longer effective or possible.”
Where companies have set their policy, it doesn’t necessarily go down well. Employees at German carmaker VW find its work phone policy, which locks employees’ access to email on work phones via a “server lock” when outside normal hours, too difficult to do flexible working. It happens. Introduced in 2011, the block applies between 6.15 pm to 7.00 am.
In practice, the rules may prove flexible – in France, for example, small businesses are exempt and, broadly speaking, the law serves to highlight the issue rather than penalize employers.
The Financial Times spoke to managers about their own working practices and views on the law.
Colin Hunt, CEO, AIB
© Mark Dugan / FT
In 2020, Ireland’s second largest bank, AIB, was the first company in the country to introduce the right to disconnect. But Hunt says his own efforts to switch off are a progress.
He admits that “I go out of my way to try”, and makes time for important school events for his three children, aged 10 to 14. “They are considered very important meetings,” he says.
Hunt tries to schedule holidays, usually during quieter times of the year, and shut down completely—bar the “occasions” when he has to jump on a call.
During the week, he typically works a 12-hour day which is “very full”. “But whenever I get home, I try to leave work behind. I try to do a specific split.
Hunt says the hours employees are contacted depend on their roles. “If I need to speak with a member of the executive committee outside of office hours, I will. On the rare occasions I need to be contacted, I will call rather than email.
He aims to keep his weekend work-free, though admits: “If there’s anything to deal with, my team have ways of making sure I’m contactable.”
Michael Gaynor, CEO, Toyota Financial Services Ireland
Afraid of forgetting something important at work, Gaynor would wake up in the middle of the night and write a note or send herself an email.
He now finds that he “can’t solve a problem at 11 p.m. or 4 a.m. – I’ve trained myself not to think about it until after I wake up”.
He says he will have to encourage employees to go home from the office “all the time.” “I need to know why someone is working late. , , Because it’s not something we want people to get used to.
Working It Newsletter
Sign up Subscribe to the Working It newsletter for everything you need to get ahead at work, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday
Gaynor has practiced what he preached before Ireland began “right to disconnect” law in 2021, largely to spend time with his children, aged nine and 12, and because he puts a high premium on mental health and wellbeing for himself and his employees. “Everyone has the right to completely separate and log off,” he says.
Despite working for a Japanese company – Japan is famous for office workers working long hours – and managing an eight-hour time difference with colleagues there, Gaynor is committed to making sure That he and his staff take time for themselves.
Employees who attempt to send email outside of normal office hours receive a prompt suggesting that they schedule an appointment during the work day. “My director of operations is currently on annual leave. . . . I set a timer to not come to his inbox (email) at 9 a.m. Wednesdays, when I know he’s back in the office, so I’ve told him the day before. time to come during,” says Gaynor.
He can check email in the evening. “If there’s something important, I’ll call. But (otherwise) I certainly don’t answer, not anymore.
Izzy Obeng, Founder & CEO, FounderVine
© Lewis Patrick / Black Cultural Archives
Obeng expects 25 colleagues to be “reasonably available” at his small London-based consultancy and says the company, which helps start-ups, will deliver “a lot of events outside traditional working hours”. But his focus is “about being flexible”. Parents can come later and will instead answer emails in the evening.
She suggests that the rules are “better suited to traditional (corporate) environments where people look to 9 to 5”. She says that tech companies and start-ups need to be more nimble. “You’re chasing opportunities. You often don’t have the resources that a larger organization does. People work in multiple roles. They may need to be more available.
However, she encourages employees to let her know their preferred approach to communication, perhaps phone calls or Slack messages, and share when they’re out of touch. A coworker drives to school and logs on later. The other prefers to take time off during the week and work on the weekend. Employees complete time sheets to let managers know when they are overworked. “We have a culture that people can take time off in return,” says Obeng.
When it comes to her personal tech use, she says: “You think about work-life balance differently as an entrepreneur. Work and life (are not) somewhat different.”
Danny Harmer, Chief People Officer, Aviva
Harmer worries that any right-to-disconnect law would be too blunt for businesses that operate across time zones or respond to 24-hour customer demands. This should clarify “the problem you are trying to solve”.
Aviva doesn’t have a formal policy on out-of-hours communication and Harmer says employees are guided by the company culture, which is set at the top. “It is very rare that I see an email from the group CEO over the weekend. If she contacts us, it’s because we need to dial or get stuck.
Harmer says employers need to discuss the expectations around flexible working. “Always being on is not healthy. There are layers of understanding. I would hate for anyone to feel like they can’t approach their boss for advice.
If someone on Hammer’s team sends an email late at night, she checks in to ask why. There’s no pressure to respond to emails that say “still create an expectation.”
Microsoft Teams shows the hours people work. “You get data at the team level to see what proportion is spent on meetings, how much is on key hours, and you can see if there’s a problem.”
Lisa Quest, Head of UK and Ireland, Oliver Wyman
© The Pipeline
Quest says any changes should be made in consultation with a diverse set of businesses to ensure no one is disproportionately affected. “What may work for one may not work for another”.
She “didn’t really look into” the right-to-disconnect rules in Ireland, where she oversees the consulting teams.
This year the consultancy has prepared a Red Amber Green (RAG) framework. Every Friday, consultants grade the intensity of the previous working week. Red means unstable and the quest has been flagged to reduce workload.
She insists that companies should make their own rules regarding working hours. “We implemented the RAG system in consultation with our employees so that there was something that worked for everyone.”
In her own life, she has a spot by the door where she and her husband put their phones after they finish work so they can spend time with their young children, though she’ll check her email afterward. Customers have their personal number so they can call on the weekend in case of a crisis. “This never happened.”
