Remember the times when you were enjoying your weekly off and suddenly an official mail came to spoil your entire weekend’s plan? Yes, that happens to almost all of us. Many a time, when we wish to spend some quality time with our loved ones, our official work hijacks all our plans. The “Always On” work culture has taken a toll on all of us by reducing our personal space and increasing stress. Even if you have met all the deadlines and finished the tasks assigned to you, your work always somehow manages to get into your home. Creating a balance between your work life and personal life is getting tougher day by day in such work environment.
Many studies have pointed out that the “Always On” work environment reduces productivity of an employee, increases stress and jeopardizes their personal life. This has led to many problems for the employees, like depression, anxiety disorder, etc. Employees are always expected to be available for their work even when on leave. These expectations hamper their personal lives and sometimes result in an unhappy family life.
Many researchers have addressed this issue of “Always On” work culture and its side-effects on employee and the organization. Studies by different organizations have found and highlighted the effects of this hectic environment on productivity. A research carried out some years ago, by Stanford University, found out that employees who worked for 50 hours or more a week — that is, more than 10 hours every day in a five-day week — were less productive overall than employees who had less punishing schedules.
Another research underlined the effects on sleep patterns due to office calls after 9 pm. The research presented by the National Institute of Health, United States titled “Sleep Loss and Fatigue in Shift Work and Shift Work Disorder” found out that such an environment has negative effects on sleep. Employees are more prone to subjective and physiological sleepiness, performance and accident risks. The research also addressed the health outcomes and states that there is a serious risk of employees suffering from cardiovascular diseases and certain forms of cancer.
To protect their workforce, countries across the globe have taken initiatives discouraging the constant pressuring work environment. France has set nationwide guidelines prohibiting employers to call employees after work hours. The “Right to Disconnect” law was passed by the Supreme Court of France in 2017. The law currently covers only those companies which have more than 50 employees. The country’s Minister of Labour said, “The aim was to rebuild the boundary between professional and personal life.” These out-of-work correspondences don’t just apply to the workday, but also to holidays. The Finance Capital of the world New York, is also mulling over such a bill.
Meanwhile back at home, Member of Parliament from Nationalist Congress Party Supriya Sule also tabled a private bill in the parliament, “The Right to Disconnect Bill.” According to the proposed bill, employees will be allowed to refuse work-related calls and emails beyond office hours and on holidays without any repercussions. The bill seeks to prohibit any action taken by the company/employer against the employee for refusing calls after office hours. Talking about the Bill, the Member of Parliament said, “The persistent urge to respond to calls and emails (termed as ‘telepressure’), constant checking of emails throughout the day, and even on weekends and holidays, is reported to have destroyed work-life balance of employees. Studies have found that if an employee is expected to be available round the clock, they tend to exhibit risks of over-work like sleep deprivation, developing stress and being emotionally exhausted.” The bill was also incorporated in the 2019 Maharashtra General Assembly Elections’s manifesto by Congress and NCP.
Many companies worldwide have also set up a new policy framework for their employees which addresses the global demand of the right to disconnect. In 2014, German car and truck maker Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz introduced a software called “Mail on Holiday” that automatically deletes any emails you get while on vacation. Volkswagen Germany also implemented a policy in 2011 stating that it would stop email servers from sending emails to the mobile phones of employees between 6pm and 7am. Other German companies such as Allianz, Telekom, Bayer and Henkel all have similar policies in place to limit the amount of digital connection employees have after work hours. WeWork has also launched its “Right to Disconnect” policy for all its employees globally.
While the concept is good in nature and attempts to bring up an ideal work environment giving importance to employee welfare, many experts and HR officials believe it to be unviable. They believe that even if this is made into a law globally, it’ll be really hard to implement it. Experts also said that in countries where there is a backlog of work in companies, such policies can not be enacted.
Every business is different, and their work priorities, markets, stage of maturity, availability of funds are different. At the end, for every business – its a matter of survival. If a business is unable to generate revenue, compete and grow – its viability, survival, and continuity of jobs come under question mark. While, businesses have to respect the need for employees to maintain their work life balance, business viability, profitability, and survival is also important. Probably, businesses can inspired to take small steps in this direction, to ensure that the workplace is friendlier to employees, have processes that does not allow spillover of work, and limits disturbance to employees post working hours.
Sandeep is a journalism and mass communication graduate with a keen interest in politics and business. He is a part of Research & Content team at HrNxt.com.
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