Editor's note: Brigid Schulte is a journalist and author. Her latest book, Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life, will be published by Holt Publishing in September. She is the director of her New America's Better Life Lab. Her views expressed in this article are her own. Read more of her thoughts on CNN.
CNN —
Newly introduced “right to disconnect” initiatives in California and around the world give workers the privilege of ignoring work messages during off-hours, due to modern, always-on, hyper-connected work culture. It aims to reduce stress and burnout.
But will it?
peter heinberg
Brigid Schulte
In an increasingly demanding environment, technology has made work a constant presence in our lives, allowing us to receive late-night emails from our bosses, texts and pings from colleagues at any time. became. Techno overload, intrusion into personal time, and constant connectivity prevent the brain and body from disconnecting and resting, leading to “technostress.”
Ashley Nixon, a professor of organizational behavior who specializes in technostress, said technostress is a very real and pervasive problem. The expectation that the “ideal” worker will be available to work at any time comes at great cost to human health, well-being, and work productivity. And the assumption that front-line workers, shift workers, and retail workers must be “on call” or risk losing their jobs is a source of profound misery. We think about work so much that researchers call this phenomenon “work-related rumination.”
Nixon said research shows that when the body never has a chance to rest and recover, levels of the stress hormone cortisol remain so high that the body begins to wear down. Work-related stress can interfere with sleep, digestion, and cognition, and over time can lead to inflammation in the body and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.
We are becoming increasingly sick and unhappy, and of course our days are filled with endless tasks and we are not performing particularly well.
“You know we're talking about the need to observe Sunday off-duty hours,” President Nixon said.
I was aware. And with a heavy workload and a packed calendar, I chose to do it anyway. She was doing similar calculations. She had even decided to check her email during her recent vacation to avoid the stress of going back to her overcrowded inbox.
While we were both fully aware of the negative effects of a 24/7 work culture, the fact that we were both working on days normally reserved for leisure and relaxation meant that the problem of overwork It shows how big it is.
At the heart of any attempt to redesign work should be giving more choice and control to the entire workforce.
Brigid Schulte
Right to Disconnect laws require us to ask the right questions. It's about why we work all the time, or why we feel like we should. Why does work-life balance feel so elusive? These are exactly the conversations we need to have.
But the right to sever the law, while a start, is not the only answer we need.
These laws began to appear in the 21st century. This is how some workers, employers and policy makers believe that technology ostensibly designed to make our lives easier is creating an “always on” that is harmful as well as its benefits. This is because I recognized that. Research has shown that even the thought of receiving a late-night email from your boss can cause intense anxiety, sending your brain into hypervigilance mode and making it impossible to disconnect and rest.
Germany's Volkswagen and BMW banned communication outside working hours in 2012 and 2014, respectively. The company's phone service disconnected him at the end of the day and wasn't restored until the next morning. Emails sent after official business hours were held or deleted.
In 2017, France passed its first right to amputation law. Italy, Belgium, Spain, Argentina and Canada have also followed suit. Australia became the latest country to pass such a law, with California Congressman Matt Haney introducing the bill to the state last month. The proposed bill would require California employers to develop and publish a company-wide plan that would require all employment contracts to clearly outline working and non-working hours. His goal is to promote work-life balance and “[cut] We reduce the stress and anxiety that inevitably comes from being available 24/7. ”
“And they could have stopped what we call wage theft,” he added, “and they could have allowed them to work beyond their contracted hours without compensation.”
The benefits of the Right to Disconnect Act include: The law recognizes that always-on connectivity is an organizational problem, not an individual failure. Yes, the addictive nature of technology makes it difficult for people to log off. Nixon said we can all do better at what she called “boundary management.” (Guilty.)
But workplace cultures that implicitly expect full-time work, leaders who don't take vacations even when told not to, and who don't contact you late at night or on weekends can cause individuals to do more than just adapt. It makes things difficult. If you don't, you risk being seen as uncommitted, passed over for a promotion, or worse, fired.
Adia Harvey Wingfield, a sociologist who studies race and work culture, said the right to separate from the law could mean a loss of time and independence, especially for workers who feel they can't say no to their employer's demands. He said this is a step towards recognizing the rights of people. Repercussions. “This is often true for underrepresented workers, due to increased attention and stereotypes about work ethics,” she wrote in a late-night email. “For these workers in particular, legislation establishing the right to maintain boundaries could be extremely beneficial.”
Research shows that organizational practices that respect people's lives outside of work not only make workers happier and healthier, but also make work more efficient and fair. Nixon said that time off from work and recovery time is associated with less mental fatigue, better sleep quality and increased engagement.
But it doesn't work here. Most right-to-disconnect laws, including California's proposal, typically target “knowledge” workers, people who hold well-paid desk jobs in front of computers. Hourly, service, and low-wage workers, who made up 44% of the workforce in 2020, may appreciate not having to respond to messages from their bosses, but their The real struggle is low wages, short work hours, chaotic schedules, and unlimited availability expected. They often have no control over their time.
Right-to-disconnect laws do not guarantee a stable schedule. Short-time working, which is a problem in the United States, is not required. Unlike many other developed countries, the United States has virtually no legal limits on the number of hours some salaried employees can work, and there are no legally guaranteed paid holidays for any worker. (A 1938 law requires hourly workers who work more than 40 hours a week to be paid overtime, but the Biden administration is also extending overtime pay to non-supervisory salaried workers making less than about $58,600 a year.) trying to expand)
Nixon, Harvey Wingfield, and I had the option to work and answer emails during off-duty hours, and the flexibility and authority to reclaim personal time later. Most of these workers don't have that option.
At the heart of any attempt to redesign work should be giving more choice and control to the entire workforce. Having the right to separate laws and policies gives organizations and teams the flexibility to make their own plans, which is a good thing.
However, some designs may not be viable. For example, consider California law. Businesses need to have a plan in place to protect their employees' time. But to enforce this, overworked workers are supposed to report their bosses to the California Labor Commission. Yes, that's right. We've all seen massive layoffs this year. Faced with the threat of losing their jobs, workers may feel they have no choice but to sit back and do their jobs.
Under California's proposal, companies could be fined $100 for three reports of overwork. That's just stupid. There is no carrot in the proposed law to reward exemplary companies, and $100 is hardly a stick to encourage companies to change.
In an increasingly technology-infused workplace culture, it can be difficult to set standards for the right to disconnect. As teams become global and, especially since the pandemic, more workers have flexible schedules and are able to set their own hours and “time shifts,” what are “normal” working hours anymore?
A 2023 study of right-to-disconnect laws published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review found mixed results. The government does not intervene in how organizations create their policies and does not enforce them, so whether it works depends largely on the will of individual employers. “In its current form, the amputation method is unable to produce significant change in large-scale practice,” the study authors wrote.
So what happens?
Yes, we workers need to learn how to use technology to set better boundaries.
But we also need good jobs that support employees with living wages, reasonable work hours, and schedule control. We want the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to regulate work stress the same way the EU's OSHA does, and to create what economist Claudia Goldin calls “greedy labor” – flexibility that extends to personal time. It is necessary to pursue companies that require long working hours without compensation. ”
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We need visionary leaders who create a positive work culture that promotes human well-being, rest, connection, and effective work. We need them to think beyond the narrow focus of next quarter's profits.
We need a better strategy than reducing attrition and “lean efficiency,” which leaves a small number of overworked workers doing too much work. We need laws that give workers more voice and power and allow them to better organize their demands.
And ultimately, we need to join other developed countries in passing public policies that support the humanity of workers, including paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, paid holidays, and investments in enhanced care. . We need a functioning unemployment system and a safety net that can move someone to the next, better job.
Absence from work should never become an act of brazen resistance or an existential threat. We need work to provide our daily bread and sense of purpose. But we also need to reclaim time for leisure and the joy of just being alive. It would be nice to reduce the number of emails.
