Right to disconnect

In the din over the government’s cynical decision to indulge in quota politics and push through a constitutional amendment to secure a 10 per cent reservation in education and jobs for the “economically backward”, a rather significant Bill has gone nearly unnoticed. The Right to Disconnect Bill, introduced as a Private Member’s Bill by Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, proposes to free employees from the tyranny of work emails and phone calls after working hours and on holidays. It seeks to set up an Employees’ Welfare Authority that will give employees the right to disconnect from these calls and emails outside of work hours without fear of reprisal.

The move will resonate with those of us who are in jobs — whether we got them with quotas or without. In this hyper-connected world, where technology has made it possible to be yoked to your workplace no matter where you are or what time of day it is, switching off from work is like trying to get the sea to pack up its waves. You may want to forget about work when you get home, but as likely as not, the work does not forget you. Thanks to that miracle machine called a smartphone, it keeps coming at you through an endless barrage of emails or WhatsApp messages — usually from your boss or employer — giving instruction, seeking information, detailing agenda, demanding a continuous back-and-forth… You know you can’t afford to ignore these missives. For aren’t you supposed to be always accessible and on-call? So you stop trying to unwind and get busy tapping out your responses. And it’s like you never left office at all.

Photo: istock

Long years ago I remember being thrilled when the newspaper where I worked at the time gave me a BlackBerry. I swanned around with it, excited with my new tech toy. But I soon realised that the chunky black phone was an insidious wormhole through which my workplace had found a way into my home. My boss (who, needless to say, had ascended the BlackBerry club much before me) began to bombard me with emails about work matters well into the dead of night. I stayed awake, dutifully responding to every instruction, observation, and unimportant concern which could have waited till the next day. It was clear that the BlackBerry had metastasised his mildly controlling impulse into a galloping pathology. What was clearer was that I had given up my downtime for the privilege of possessing a smartphone.

There are several studies to show that the “always-connected” work culture of today carries serious health hazards for employees and that flexible work boundaries, supposed to be the blessings of communications technology, are actually translating into work without boundaries. The pressure of being always on call, of never being able to completely disengage from work, results in higher levels of anxiety and stress, sleep deprivation, and greater risk of cardio-vascular diseases. In fact, a recent Virginia Tech study has found that even if workers do not check e-mails during their off-time, the awareness that the employer expects them to be contactable round-the-clock can result in stress.

Some countries in the West have started taking legislative action to combat the problem. In 2017 France brought in a law that allows employees to negotiate with employers on the quantum of after-work accessibility required. Germany is mulling similar legislation, but German firms such as Volkswagen and Daimler have already got in-house regulations in this regard. Last year a bill was tabled in the New York City Council which, if passed, will make it illegal for employers to demand that workers be contactable outside work hours.

However, in a highly competitive work scenario, you might feel pressured enough to want to work after hours or on weekends to try and stay ahead — the harm to your health be damned. In that context, perhaps Volkswagen has hit upon the best solution: its internal server blocks emails to individual accounts between 6.15pm and 7am. Oh wait, there’s always instant messaging and personal email IDs, right?

One hopes Supriya Sule’s Private Member’s Bill will kick off the much-needed conversation about the right to disconnect from work here in India. Any discussion on work-life balance is meaningless without it.

Shuma Raha is a journalist and author based in Delhi

@ShumaRaha