268. The Right To Disconnect And Ignore Your Boss

In Portugal, it is illegal for employers to contact employees after work hours.

What a concept, right?

The law is called the “Right to Disconnect”. It says that employees have the right to “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from their employer.”

Portugal wasn’t even the first country to pass the law. I just really want to go there so they’re the one I’m mentioning in case anybody from their Department of Tourism is reading this and wants to pay for me to come out and write about it.

France was the first country to bring the Right to Disconnect to life. They did it back in 2017.

As of today, the law is in place in Italy, Spain, Australia, Ireland, and Ontario, Canada.

From what I hear, Belgium and Kenya are about to approve it as well.

Honestly, I’m surprised Finland and their Scandinavian brethren haven’t adopted the law. Then again, they probably don’t need a law to enforce common decency, since Finland just cemented their title as the Happiest Country on Earth for the 7th year in a row.

And though this newsletter is read by people in 95 different countries, most of the subscribers are based in the United States. So I have one important message for all of you Americans:

Don’t hold your breath.

No Right To Disconnect

We used to have more boundaries in the United States.
That’s changed.

When it comes to work and life, the idea of a 9 to 5 job started to dissolve about the time the Blackberry became cool. But the last thread of hope to retain a work-life balance was snipped when smartphones came around.

Now we are all connected to everything, everywhere, all the time.

Communication is easier than it has ever been in the history of humanity.
That’s both good and bad.

The good part is, well, you know that part.
As for the bad…

A recent study found that 70% of US workers claim that their boss contacts them after work hours at least one time each week.

The study also found that workers assume they have to respond faster to those communications.

That means, when an after-hours email or text comes in, we naturally assume it’s more important than if it were sent during the work day. As a result, we feel we need to respond faster.

That’s bad.
Really bad.

The Health Risks Of Failing To Disconnect

The thing about getting work communication after work is that it sets an expectation. The expectation is that there are no boundaries.

With a lack of communication boundaries, it means that at any moment, day or night, you could get blindsided by a work emergency.

That’s scary.

This constant fear inevitably leads to higher levels of stress and anxiety.

With greater stress comes worse sleep. And with worse sleep comes all sorts of other problems.

I know, I’ve been there.

The result of this non-stop communication is that people are constantly checking their phones right before they go to bed and as soon as they wake up.

There are a kajillion studies that will tell you not to do that. There are zero studies (at least that I’m aware of) that will tell you it’s ok to do this.

Yet here we are.

The funny thing about this (and when I say “funny”, I mean “not funny”) is that the increased stress and anxiety still exist even if you don’t answer the after-work communication.

So all you leaders who tell your staff to “just ignore my messages until the next day”, you’re not doing anybody any favors.

You’re still the problem.

The Urgency In The Right To Disconnect

People who send communication after work hours tend to underestimate the stress their communication causes to the recipients.

At the same time, receiving communication outside of work hours makes the recipient overestimate the urgency of the message.

The simple fact that you’re sending the note at night gives it a perceived urgency. That perception is what causes the stress. And the anxiety increases because they feel a need to reply faster.

It doesn’t even matter what your email says.

The problem isn’t what you sent, it’s the time you decided to send it.

The Right To Disconnect In The USA

If you think the US federal government is going to pass the Right To Disconnect Act anytime soon, you are either an eternal optimist or completely deranged.

As I said above, don’t hold your breath.
Because it’s not going to happen.
Also, you’ll suffocate.

It’s more likely that an uber-liberal state like California will pass that bill. But that won’t happen either. So don’t keep your hopes up.

Change won’t start with the State, it has to start with companies and individuals. It has to start with you.

So here’s what I want you to do:

Tell your employees and colleagues that you won’t send any messages after work and ask that they commit to doing the same thing.

Set a time limit (say… 7 pm?) after which only urgent communication is allowed. Also, make sure you define what is urgent. For instance, your website going down might be considered urgent.

Balance is more important than ever right now (as you learned last week). Giving people the right to disconnect is a little thing you can implement immediately as a way to let everybody get more emotional stability.

So don’t be that person who causes stress for no reason whatsoever.
Let your employees disconnect in peace.
It’s the right thing to do.

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If you want to know more about the Right to Disconnect, here are some articles that I found useful:

“It’s Becoming Illegal If Employers Contact Employees After Work, New Research Shows”, Forbes, by Bryan Robinson, Ph.D.

“Why Weekend Work Emails Are Bad For Your Family”, by Maura Thomas