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- ❌💻 What is the Right to Disconnect?
❌💻 What is the Right to Disconnect?
& should it be illegal for your boss to call you on the weekend?
Ever wonder where human rights came from?
Most of them were created by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. (see below)
But every once in a while, people come up with new ones…
Like the “Right to Disconnect.”
The Right to Disconnect is the idea that people should be allowed to “disconnect” from their jobs when they’re not working.
That means that they don’t have to respond to work emails and can’t be reprimanded for ignoring emails on the weekends and evenings.
It shouldn't be surprising that France is the world leader in allowing its workers to disconnect from their jobs.
In 2004, a French Supreme Court decision found that an employee being unreachable:
“on his cellphone outside working hours cannot be considered as misconduct.”
Since then, the French parliament passed a law establishing a legal right to disconnect.
A 2016 French government report found that:
37% of workers were using their work phones outside of work hours
62% of workers wanted more regulations to preserve their right to disconnect from work.
The report, which was investigating the effects of digital technologies on work-life balance, found that establishing a right to disconnect is necessary to ensure that workers don't experience burnout.
Similar laws establishing a “right to disconnect” have been passed in over a dozen countries, including: Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Portugal, & Argentina.
In Germany, some employers have implemented policies designed to protect their employees' right to disconnect.
German automaker Volkswagen even created rules that prevent workers from receiving new emails between 6 PM and 7 AM.
What about in America?
It’s hard to imagine a “right to disconnect” in the United States.
Our work culture is… intense, to say the least.
There are corporate lawyers, bankers, & doctors among the Daily Concept’s readers.
It would be difficult for them to imagine a world where their boss is legally barred from calling them into work on a Saturday night.
That doesn’t mean some Americans aren’t pushing for a right to disconnect.
Earlier this year, a California state assemblyman proposed a bill that would create a “right to disconnect” for California workers. The details of the bill are shown below:
Unfortunately, the bill didn’t pass.
But that doesn’t mean that legislators in California and elsewhere around the U.S. won’t continue to push for right to disconnect laws.
Alan King, CEO of Workplace Options, an employee well-being company, explained why there's been a growing movement for right to disconnect laws around the world in recent years:
ART OF THE DAY
Lust for Life by Max Ernst. 1936.
