The Right to Disconnect
Technology has reached a new height of development and so do the communication systems. The purpose of this report is to focus on the adverse effects and consequences of developing information technology. Right to disconnect is the main agenda around which the paper revolves and discusses the advantages and disadvantages by referring to a particular case study. The explanation of concept development, limitations, reasons, etc. have been vividly discussed throughout in this paper.
A. Explaining the concept of the right to disconnect:
The right to disconnect is a Right of the humans which have been proposed and it deals with the ability of people on how they can disconnect from their work and not get themselves engaged primarily into electronic communications which are related to their work such as the messages in the hours which are not included in their duties and the workload from the emails. The environment of work which has been modernised and is having a drastic change by the introduction of technologies and communication systems in the field. The reason behind this is that excessive work pressure is minimising the freedom of the employees in their personal life. In other words, it can be said that work life is influencing the private the private life of the employees considering the fact right to disconnect has been introduced. The right ensures no employees work after working hour so, that freedom and flexibility can be maintained. Along with the gender equality law, this law has also been made mandatory for the organisations having more than 50 employees. Telstra is one of the well-known companies in the Australian business market. The company has implemented this law in their work culture for increasing sustainability and flexibility in the organisation (Telstra, 2018). Moreover, companies not following the law will pay fine to the government. With the increase in technological equipment and social media work life of the employees is affecting the private life too. As per the opinion of Thomas et al. (2018), it has been seen that employees are receiving work emails even after working hour.Outside the workplace, employers will not force employees to attend phone calls, messages or emails. Furthermore, if employees are offered work even after working hour, then the organisation has to pay more money to the employee.
B. Discussing the limitations and benefits of disconnecting from the email:
Email is one of the easiest ways of connecting with people in the organisation. However, it is seeing that email takes a value time of the employees. Some of the limitations of disconnecting email are employee will have a flexible work culture and consistency in the workplace can be maintained. Besides, employees will feel connected to their lifestyle. Furthermore, digital technology is leaving a negative impact on the private life of the employees as they are not getting enough time to unwind with themselves and their families apart from their work life and are getting stressed about the completion of duties on time which has been showered upon them by their company on their non-working hours. This mails and messages burdenthe employees with much workload and tension other than their duty hours and intervene in the privacy of their life and engagement of their selves to something relaxing or distressing in their daily schedules. Another advantage of disconnecting from email is that depression and stress can be minimised as it is affecting the personal space of the employees because the subordinates have to work in the hours meant for themselves and their families, but they are burdened with the load of work at their home when they are supposed to relax their mind and unwind with their self along with expanding their knowledge on vast topics by reading some books or articles. Disconnecting can help the workers maintain their health and prevent them from being stressed and their lives overrated with the extra load of work from their workplaces. Furthermore, the business decision can be taken more properly if, the employees do their work in office hour. The organisations tend to divert from the rights meant for the employees of the firm and overload them more with work pressure therefore if the subordinates feel their rights are not being taken care of they should disconnect. Employees of staffs find their way more precarious by their performance thereby, and this can be minimised. As per the opinion of Arciniega (2017, p.176), some of the limitations of disconnecting from email is business activity may destroy, which is required to be taken in the real time. As a result, the profitability of the organisation may get affected along with that, development of the company in the business world maybe disrupted. One of the key techniques to develop digital marketing is social media and email, which can be used by anyone at any time. Thereby, these techniques will help Telstra to improve their business activity more properly and effectively. As per the view of Workplace and HR (2014), emails and all other technological tools help the company to serve customers and clients more effectively and efficiently. Technology is the only way to connect employees and boss even after working hours so, that will be missed if, employees or boss disconnect email after working hour. Moreover, with the help of technology business related issue can be traced anytime from anywhere. There are some important effects of technology in the business, and the size of the business be it small or big is not of much heed to the use of technology. There are both tangible and intangible benefits of technology with the help of which an organisation can make profits, and it helps in the production of effective results for the customers, the way they demand. The structures of technology help in tracing the issues in the organisation which is not possible manually and the identification of the same as it helps I’m better and faster communication. It is also able to find the prospectors are modern enough for benefiting the business along with specifications within the organisation and the proceedings of the different activities of the firm can be assessed from a distance. Such are the odds of technology in an organisation.
A. Evaluation of the example:
Telstra – A Case Study
The example has been used to identify an implication of information technology systems and the right to disconnect within an organisation of IT.
The example that can be used for explaining the right to disconnect took place recently in May 2018, and an important measure was signed into the law in France. The company which suffered a right to disconnect by the employees is Telstra, which can be taken as an example to this issue. According to Bellamy and Kröger (2016), the employees at Telstra in France have been given the legal right to avoid emails based on their works outside of the hours they are working. Telstra is a company which have more than 50 employees working in the firm are bound to draw up a well-defined charter which deals with the aspects like good conduct, defining and stating the hours of work. There are thirty-five hours of working week in France, and that has been into execution since the year 2000.
According to Foa and Mounk (2016), the workers or personnel who supports the new law has stated that the employees or the staffs of the firm who check the emails related to the work after their respective hours of work at the office are not getting an extra sum of money or being paid for it. They are not paid with an extra value of fund for the duty they are doing overtime. It has also been taken into consideration that the practices which are being carried out have a risk which can lead to increased stress levels, burnouts, problems related to the sleep or insomnia and difficulties in relationships. Although, there are also certain records where some companies including Telstra have tried to limit the activities of their employees about the work emails outside their working hours.
B. The reasoning for disconnects:
The various reasons behind the disconnecting of emails by the employees of Virginia Tech include the following:
According to Fogelet al. (2014), there were specific tasks which were shared out to the staffs or workers of the organization which were to be divided equally amongst the members of the team but there were certain miscommunications taking place among the bodies of the organization due to the untimely emails and the differences in the times of response by the employees. There was lack of cooperation that has been witnessed because of the perception of unfairness amongst the staffs of the companies which were leading to higher risks of uncertainties and losses for the company also resulting in a decrease of its competitive strength.
Advantages of the Right to Disconnect
According to Hesselberth (2018), there was boundary line previously between the work life and the life at home, but due to the introduction of new technologies in the field of business, there is a shrink in the distance between the work and home life. The tools which are supposed to bring freedom and flexibilities to the life of the people or employees has led to an interference in the lives of the people except for their work hours too and has led to a lot of interference in the personal lives of the employees or the staffs working in the concerned companies. According to Hill and Tausanovitch (2015), for the right functioning of the company standards and guidelines the right to disconnect from the emails is very much beneficial which will allow the mass to cut off the communication with their work environment and will not forcefully engage them into communications that are electronic regarding their services such as the electronic messages or emails during the hours of not working with the firm.
The company had looked forward to implying this right for the benefit of their human resource development that encouraged them to go in for implementing this strategy to avoid any unwanted and corporate pressure for some moments in the day.
C. Sustainability of the policies:
Right to disconnect is an important aspect of the work life of the employees and thus employees disconnecting from emails and several other technological tools may increase their efficiency of work in the work environment. According to Latib and Pagnesi (2017), they can also maintain a good balance between the work life and the personal life. Thus, the right will improve the lifestyle of the employees. But on the other hand, right to disconnect facilitates the increase in dedicated employees and thus; as a result, the revenue of the government may decrease due to the decrease in official income of the organisation. As a result, decreasing the taxable income of Telstra. This right may also affect the growth of business due to variation in the decision taken mainly after business hours. Thus, irrespective of the good outcomes of this right, the adverse consequences may not allow the organisation to sustain the policy as no organisation would want to run in losses. As opined by Maleet al. (2014), to sustain the policy, the organisation may introduce certain flexible policies which may include work hour divisions. Since if the whole business affairs stop even for fifteen minutes, it is enough to rise a huge loss thus the organisation can segregate working times provided to them. According to Plester and Hutchison (2016), the introduction of shifts is essential including day shifts and night shifts and the employers will be free to select their shift according to their comfort zone. The efficiency of the workers due to better lifestyle should be intellectually used.
Reflection on the significance of the right to disconnect in the workplace:
Disadvantages of the Right to Disconnect
According to me, there should be an equation in the life that we have including our day to day schedules along with our working schedules. The time when I am at the office must have a dedication towards my work so that it helps the firm achieve its competitive goals and objectives by my contribution. Also, there should not arise any consequences of work after the finishing of the hours related to the work. The workplace I’m dedicating my skill must have a healthy environment, and there must be cooperation amongst all my fellow members of the firm, and we should have a common vision and perspective towards the completion of our duties. I, along with my fellow employees should maintain a good relation and understanding terms with the higher executives of my workplace. Therefore, if my requirements are not met I have the right to disconnect because I am generally contributing all my energy and time on fulfilling the goals of the firm which has been laid down and if the firm is putting more workload other than the working hours I have the right to disconnect and say NO to the further amount of duties imposed on me. I can sign my mail accounts to disconnect from the technological arena which is tending to increase my burden of work and give me extra pressure when I am unwinding with myself. I need to disconnect for maintaining privacy in my life as I have done my part of the job in my working hours and not supposed to work further for which I am not even being paid.
The right to disconnect is a proposal passed by law according to which people have the right to get disconnected from work. Most importantly, the main element of right to disconnected provides the right to the employees of getting disconnected from different work related electronic communications, especially emails during non-working hours. According to Daviset al. (2016), for me, the most significant aspect was, this right helps to maintain work life balance which together helps to maintain an overall balanced life. Dealing with work pressures we generally tend to forget how to balance our personal life, which causes problems. According to Clark (2013), disconnections are mainly done to educate and train people workers on how to achieve a good work/life balance and how to regulate their activity. Previously I thought that digital technologies are very vital since they make our work more productive. Though it is true, still there are a few major drawbacks also. According to Christenson and Ingerson (2016), getting more involved with digital gadgets hampers our physical as well as mental health, and it damages our interpersonal relationships and hence affects our work-life balance, and thus a break from these gadgets are important for a well-balanced life. After knowing all the pros and cons of digitalisation, I do feel that right to disconnect is very essential. We need breaks to disconnect with the digital life and manage our day-to-day affairs.
Based on reading, explaining what is the future of the right to disconnect:
Limitations
Considering the case study on Telstra and right to disconnect I can say that it will leave both positive and negative impact on the growth of the company as well on the employees. The concept of the right to disconnect will improve the lifestyle of the employees. On the other hand, it may damage or minimise the change of Telstra to grow in the global business market. It can also be said that there will be a huge increase in the number of workers. Therefore, it can be said that the future of the right to disconnect will be successful. The reason behind this is that concept allows the employee to get freedom and flexible work environment.
Furthermore, it can be commented that employment efficiency and employee retention will increase through the implementation of this concept is Telstra. However, it has been foundout that from the studies and researches done on the right to disconnect will decrease the revenue of the government as, raise in the number of workers will decrease the income of government through, taxation policy. Thereby, it can be said that future of the right to disconnect will get affected to some extent due to lack of support of the government as has been assessed from the case study of Telstra and the reasons why people are disconnecting from the office. On the other hand, it will facilitate the better lifestyle for the workers and work can efficiency can be maintained in the workplace with the help of right to disconnect.
The future of the right to disconnect will be seen to have taken its position in a huge section that will reflect its need that has been they are in the today’s time. Frustrating e-mails, calls from offices has already been a reason of ill-health, and therefore, human of the corporate industry is looking forward to it.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the above study that right to disconnect is an important aspect of the work life of the employees. Thereby, it can be said that it is the right of the employees to disconnect from email and several other technical tools. Right to Disconnect will increase the efficiency of the workers in the work environment. In this way, equilibrium will be maintained between the work life and personal life of the employees. However, it can be said that the right to disconnect will facilitate an increase in inefficient employees. As a result, the revenue from the government can also be decreased as the firm is not able to increase its turnover. Thus, the paper discusses a solid example that covers the ultimate questions raised on regarding right to disconnect and its features.
Reasons for the Right to Disconnect
Reference list:
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