As we highlighted in a recent article, the problem of presenteeism is a growing problem within the workplace. However, new research from Owl Labs has found that 27% of employers are now considering introducing a right to disconnect from work out of hours, in order to help their employees better separate their working and home lives.
The Problem Of Presenteeism
There has been growing debate over introducing a right to disconnect for employees, due to the increasing problem of presenteeism.
As we highlighted in our aforementioned recent article, presenteeism has been on the rise with more and more employees working despite being ill. Indeed, according to a recent report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Simply Health, 84% of employers having encountered the problem during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the report found that whilst 75% had witnessed this is the workplace, even more (77%) had encountered the issue from employees working at home.
Presenteeism can often have serious health consequences, with employees becoming worn down and exhausted, less productive, and they are often left with long term ill health problems. These problems would often not otherwise have occurred, had the employee simply taken the time off when they originally should have done, to recover from their health problems.
In part, presenteeism has been fueled by fears about job security, concerns about long term career progression, feelings of being irreplaceable, and excessively high workloads combined with a desire to keep on top of it.
Nevertheless, a major contributory factor behind the increase in presenteeism has been that technology, such as smart phones (and the ready access to emails through them), has made employees more accessible and effectively on call out of hours. This element of the problem has been dubbed as ‘smartphone presenteeism‘ and ‘digital presenteeism‘. A report from the Chartered Management Institute, for example, found that 61% of managers stated that modern technology made it more difficult for them to switch off from work, with 54% admitting that they regularly checked their emails out of hours.
Furthermore, in their aforemtioned report, the CIPD concluded: “With the recent increase in homeworking, digital technology has the potential to enable an ‘always on’ culture. There’s a concern that the boundaries between work and home life can be increasingly blurred, making it more difficult for many people to switch off.“ Given this, some are calling for employees to be given a right to disconnect, so as to enable them to switch off.
A Legal Right To Disconnect
In a new report, Owl Labs found that 27% of employers are now contemplating introducing a 'right to disconnect' in some form or other to assist their employees in separating their working lives from their home life, with measures such as banning / ignoring out of hours phone calls and emails.
France, Italy, and Spain have already introduced legislation in recent years to protect employees right to disconnect out of hours, and the Republic of Ireland has recently brought in a code of practice.
Moreover, an opinion poll conducted by Opinium found that in the UK, 66% of those currently working remotely and 59% of all workers supported the idea of a legal right to disconnect. On the back of that poll, the union, Prospect, called for a legal right to disconnect to be included in the forthcoming Employment Bill.
Would Having A Legal Right To Disconnect Work?
Some observers caution that having a legal right to disconnect may not work as intended. CIPD senior employment relations adviser, Rachel Suff, for instance, contends that such a policy does not address the underlying issues that cause presenteeism, such as high caseloads, and could undermine flexible working.
Furthermore, the founder of Collective Campus, Steve Glaveski, argues that a legal right to disconnect is a "half-baked solution to a poorly diagnosed problem, one that could do more harm than good." He contends that the solution requires a shift to a "culture where people are empowered to harness their attention to get stuff done, free from the shackles of real-time communication that robs people of their agency to work how it best suits them. This requires a shift from real-time communication and hours, to asynchronous communication and outcomes."
Glaveski adds that being able to choose when, where, and how to perform a task "is at the core of asynchronous communication....Asynchronous communication promotes uninterrupted stretches of time where people can actually do deep, focused work. This not only results in a more rewarding experience of work, but also shorter hours, thanks to the liberation of our cognition to focus on high-value tasks....It liberates people from cognitively debilitating task switching, and gives employees the freedom to decide how, where and when they work, rather than handing over that decision to the Government"
Glaveski concludes that "changing how we work, rather than the hours we work, is key to a more rewarding experience of work, one that leaves us energized and free to fully enjoy our time away from it."
