In an attempt to tackle the never-ending demand of the professional side and ultimately taking a toll over the person’s personal life and leading to a work-life imbalance, here comes a rule– You get the Right to Disconnect to all the work-related calls after your duty hours. It has always been an issue of taking a toll on the employees around the world. The Right to Disconnect Bill has been recently presented in the Lok Sabha.
“The Right to Disconnect Bill, introduced by NCP MP Supriya Sule, is trying to give employees the right to not respond to employers’ calls, texts or emails after office hours.
The idea is to help reduce work-related stress and strive for a better work-life balance.”
When you come home after a hectic day, you have this fearing expectation of receiving a call or an email, you might be asked to prepare and send some report or presentation on an urgent basis, you might be called and asked to report to the office early the next morning and etc and etc. That tension of being AVAILABLE for work all the time takes a toll on you and you tend to ignore your family and personal time. In the long run, what it results in is, only stress and anxiety. It leads to frustration at home, lack of proper sleep, tiredness and also job un-satisfaction.
How will it help?
- It will apply to companies with more than 10 employees who will have to set up an Employee Welfare Committee to ensure compliance.
- The bill also says that no disciplinary action can be taken against you if you choose to not respond to your employer after your stipulated work hours.
Some facts : ( Source: Economic Times)
- France was the trendsetter when it comes to these policies — employees have had the right to disconnect since 2017 in companies with more than 50 employees. The country’s minister of labor said the aim was to re-build the boundary between professional and personal life.
- In Spain, regardless of the number of employees, all companies must create the right to disconnect policies. New York is also mulling over such a bill.
- These out-of-work correspondences don’t just apply to the workday, but also to holidays. German car and truck maker Daimler made the bold step of introducing software that automatically deletes any emails you get while on vacation, back in 2014.
- These hopes may be premature as it’s a private member’s bill, and no such bill has become an Act since 1970. As recommended by the promoters of those that started this discussion, it won’t be effective until directors and supervisors decrease the work weight on representatives.
People need to stay connected to family, friends, and work throughout the day. But somehow it causes severe trouble in balancing a private and professional life for many. Discussing and bringing up Personal life to the office is always discouraged and now with the changing times, once the working hours are fulfilled we need not take our professional burden to our house and share it with our family members, this must be taken care too.
In India, however, it would be really difficult to hope for this change getting actualized regardless of whether it is passed, as the employers would find out some alternate means for staying connected with their team members, But let us stay hopeful.
On a sincere note,
Priyanka
#VirtualSiyahi
