Concept of Right to disconnect
The advent of digitization and the technological advancement increase the dynamics of the workplace activities to a great extent. In the service industries employees are compelled to take the calls 24 hours without having any free time. As a matter of fact, the companies push them to take extra care after their working hours and in return they will get lucrative overtime wages. However, this is against the guidelines of the company norms. In fact, the international regulation on this aspect does not support this new exploitative mechanism (Dery, Kolb and MacCormick 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this report is to draw a clear picture of different aspects about Right to Disconnect and the significance of the Right to Discussion on employees. Furthermore, the report also encapsulates the case study of Volkswagen and the new policies that ensure employee safety by enforcing the Right to Disconnect.
The idea of Right to Disconnect is related to the human right acts that enable the employees to disconnect from work and not to engage in wok-related digital communication such as e-mail or other digital communication tools after the end of the shift hours. This is so important on the context of the flexibility in the workplace culture and the remote intelligence framework. As far as the research of Dery, Kolb and MacCormick (2014) is concerned, it can be argued that the remote intelligence framework increase the employee activities to a rapid pace that most of them do their jobs from home. The technological advancements escalate this trend to a great extent that with the help of video calls and Skype chat the employees can easily communicate with the team leader. As a matter of fact, it can be seen that the role of the technological excellence fosters a great advantage to the workplace environment where the company can engage its employees at a stretch for 24 hours (Fogel et al. 2014). However, this should not be the vision of the companies because this is some sort of exploitation that the companies are practiced in order to get more production and benefits. It can be argued that overtime work is against the corporate business ethics and in response to this the government of France was the whistleblower to adapt a new law regarding the right to ‘professional disconnection’ in 2015. In this regard, the government of France advocated that the digital technologies create a severe damage to the interests of the employees by taken back the free and private spaces of the workers (Walt 2017). As a matter of fact, a survey followed by the law discovered that the use of professional digital tools among the workers is 37% and it causes an overshooting of their normal working hours.
Benefits and limitations
In his study, Thomson, Johnson and Devlin (2018) mentioned about some survey and researches that develops an understanding regarding the detrimental impact of workplace digitization and damages the free space of the employees. As per the survey of the University of Southern California, the practice of remote intelligence in workplace has been increased almost two hundred fold from 1986 to 2007. In addition to this, the gig economy becomes a serious threat to the business environment. It is based on a temporary workforce that is independent and engages with the production of the company. However, due to having no permanent workforce it would be easy for the organizations to employ temporary or contractual staffs with no such working shift.
Based on the above discussion it can be argued that there are a number of benefits and limitations in the right to disconnect. The purpose of this section is to create a better understanding of the workplace scenario both from the point of view of the employees and the organization.
- It can be argued that the Right to Disconnect provides the employees to get ample time for their personal space. Personal space of an employee is very important in the context of giving the person or an individual some time for himself. In this particular time he can think about something out of his job, doing something creative or looking for something that will help him to develop a better personality (Boeckmann, Misra and Budig 2014). According to the report with the intense fastness in human life people are more striving for some personal or private space where he or she can think about themselves only (financialexpress.com 2018).
- The next benefit of Right to Disconnect is related to enhancing creativity. According to the psychological standpoint, doing the same task again and again for a long time leads to a mental block. People cannot think about what he or she is doing (Blundell, Bozio and Laroque 2013). On the other hand, giving some break time will facilitate freshness in mind and it enhances the chance of creative thinking and learning process (Haridy 2018). As creativity in work is considered to be one of the major factors therefore, it is highly important for the employees to show some uniqueness in performance. As a matter of fact, the organization would also be beneficial by enhancing employee creativity in order to provide them Right to Disconnect.
- Stress in job is a common nature among the employees nowadays. Most of the people face severe challenges in their psychic nature due to immense workload and pressure of their jobs (Kooij et al. 2013). As a result of that people are more prone towards committing suicide or getting engaged in nocturnal or criminal activities (Kindelan 2018). This is not an example of healthy workplace environment. Moreover, it is against the ethics of business. Therefore, the corporate organizations must implement the Right to Disconnect to reduce the stress of their employees.
- The Right to Disconnect policy is putting more emphasis on the social characteristics of human beings. According to Wolfe (2018) man is a social animal and he has every right to be social. Based on this argument it can be argued that the philosophical and psychological elements of the Right to Disconnect policy is benevolent and important. Furthermore, it can be argued that doing office work all the time is not the only aim of life for a person. There are plenty of other things on which people put focus on. Spending time with family and friends is also a pertinent part of everyone’s life and the Right to Disconnect rightly highlights those points (Buonocore and Russo 2013).
- In addition to this, the Right to Disconnect policy also reflects the man versus machine concept where it resembles the idea that employees and workers are not machines to provide services 24 hours at a stretch. As a matter of fact, the Right to Disconnect policy shares the idea of prohibiting exploitation in workplace (Kindelan 2018). It is important for the company to follow the principles of the International Labor Organization and act accordingly. Therefore, the Right to Disconnect is introduced with the purpose to safeguard the interests of the employees and workers and give them a better workplace environment so that they can cherish with excellence.
- The limitations of the Right to Disconnect are primarily evoked by the companies. Firstly, it can be argued that the Right to Disconnect policy will foster a detrimental impact on the organizational culture. From 10 to 15 years the corporate business groups maintain some specific workplace culture. As a result of that all the operational procedure are vested on the workplace schedule and culture (Dall’Ora et al. 2016). Now with the advent of the new regulation in terms of the Right to Disconnect it will be a severe damage to the business operations for many companies as they are not in a position to move on with the drastic change (Packin and Lev-Aretz 2016). Moreover, due to the Right to Disconnect it will increase the expenses for the service industries mainly because now those industries have to switch their operational process and compel to introduce some extra initiative that increases the costs of operations more.
- Another major argument has been emerged from the business organizations’ ends about the mentality of the employees to do job effectively. As per the report published by Gray and Citron (2013), it can be stated that the employees become more concerned about their working hours rather than keeping an eye on their performance. This kind of workplace environment is not suitable in any business organizations and at the same time it also hampers the continuous productions and quality of services in most of the organizations. As a matter of fact, on behalf of the companies the employees should take some extra responsibilities in terms of giving some extra efforts because they are also an intricate part of the company (Fitzgerald et al. 2014). The Right to Disconnect act damages the healthy relationship between employees and their supervisors and causes great harm to the foundation of the business activities.
- From the viewpoint of the efficacy of the Right to Disconnect it can be ascribed that the regulation is yet to prove its importance. There is no strict regulation that the companies are compelled to follow in their daily business operations (Grevet et al. 2014). Moreover, the lack of depth in addressing the issue makes the act vague and a matter of doubt. In fact, it is essential to make some strict regulation and firm steps to force the organizations following the rules (Anthonysamy, Greenwood and Rashid 2013). However, there is no fine for the companies that violate the rules of Right to Disconnect.
- On the contrary to safeguard the rights of the employees in the form of Right to Disconnect it is identified that the regulation is a farce and lack of rationality in the age of technological advancement. As far as the research of Barricelli et al. (2015) is concerned, it is seen that most of the multinational companies are giving their employees the leverage to follow flexible workplace schedule. In that case, the companies do not have any fixed work time and as a result of that they are unable to follow the regulatory guidelines of the Right to Disconnect. Moreover, there are ample of evidences where the employees opted for work from home concept. This is also an advantage of the technological progress in business. Therefore, the Right to Disconnect policy has no provision for the employees who work from home because there is no hard and fast shift timing for them (Van Bussel and Henseler 2013). Hence, the regulatory framework of the Right to Disconnect is inapplicable on them.
The Right to Disconnect policy was first implemented by German automobile company Volkswagen back in 2012. The Volkswagen Company freeze the Blackberry servers of sending emails to some employees during their shift was over. The purpose of such initiatives was identified that the carmaker giant tried to compartmentalize the home and work life of its workers. It was a bold step on behalf of Volkswagen that strictly followed the German government regulation of trade union negotiating contracts. As a matter of fact, the Volkswagen Company intended to make a better workplace environment framework for its employees so that they could share their innovative ideas and excellence in a profound manner in order to expand the business of the company more extensively. The perils of putting pressure on the workers were so much concerned by Volkswagen that the carmakers did not want to interfere in the personal spaces of its employees. Furthermore, in an interview to BBC the VW spokesperson Gunnar Killian briefed that from the new decision the employees could use their emails before and after 30 minutes of their shift timing (bbc.co.uk 2012). However, the VW authorities advocated that though it was a benevolent approach taken by the company nevertheless it might not be beneficial for all the organizations.
There is no denying fact that the Right to Disconnect policy has a benevolent and effective measure in order to create better workplace environment in an organization. Moreover, the policy facilitates an effective measure to incorporate more creativeness and innovation in operation. However, it is pertinent for the organizations to set some frameworks that are able to maintain the purpose of the Right to Disconnect policy. In response to this, the Volkswagen Company also puts some emphasis on its working schedule of the employees. As per the company report, the normal shift of the workers is estimated 7.30 to 15.45 daily (bbc.co.uk 2012). However, keeping in mind about the betterment of the employees Volkswagen operatives proposed to open the server 30 minutes before and after the daily shifts. The purpose of giving a 30 minutes gateway was that it would be an effective measure for the employees to prepare themselves 30 minutes before so that they can mitigate the issue related to their work. This is so far considered to be an effective and accurate measure that not only giving rights to leisure to the employees but at the same time enable an efficient framework to meet the company profit as well.
Example of Right to disconnect
Right to Disconnect is identified as an important aspect nowadays. I feel personally that it is essential to ensure the safety and interests of the employees as most of the companies want to increase their profit by exploiting the employees. However, the government measures are not effective enough. Therefore, I presume it will be better if the government takes effective steps in order to establish a Right to Disconnect policy profoundly.
The future scope for the Right to Disconnect is not so gloomy. Despite of having some flaws in the regulatory set up it is an undeniable fact that the importance and significance of the Right to Disconnect is highly relevant for the organizations. The future scopes are as follows
- The technological advancements make life miserable for human beings. Therefore, the Right to Disconnect policy helps the employees to enjoy a sustainable life both in personal and professional arena. Feeling less stressed and more focused on work are the best options for both the employees and the companies as well.
- The complexities in workplace with the increasing trend in the technological dominance have increased the relevance of the Right to Disconnect in the organizations. It is important for the organizations to take concern regarding the workplace health and safety for their employees and the Right to Disconnect facilitates more importance on this matter.
- Moreover, from the view point of the organizations it can be argued that the benefits of the Right to Disconnect will also help the companies to take sustainable approach and in result it may able to reduce employee turnover. However, it is important for the government to amend the law with more firm regulations so that the companies will compel to follow the guidelines.
Conclusion
It can be stated that the Right to Disconnect policy has both a psychological and a positive approach to curtail the dominance of the technology in a certain extent so that it will foster a better workplace environment. In this context, the report rightly explained the definitions and benefits of implementing such measure. Moreover, there are a number of limitations that can cause challenges to the efficacy of the policy. The report identified such flaws as well. In a conclusion, it can be argued that the Right to Disconnect is important and every country must implement this policy as a step against exploitation and increasing the production in a healthy way.
Reference
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Conclusion
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