OPINION: Should Australia adopt a ‘right to hang up’ bill for work burnout?

A new Australian plan to give workers the “right to disconnect” from emails and phone calls from their bosses during off-hours is making headlines around the world. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the US or other countries if reasonable exceptions could be made.

The bill, approved by the Australian Senate on February 8, would allow workers to ignore office calls after hours and prevent companies from penalizing them for doing so. According to reports in Australia, the bill is almost certain to pass the House of Commons.

On February 7, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “People who don’t get paid 24 hours a day should not be penalized for not being available 24 hours a day.”

Proposed new Australian laws appear to support a growing global trend to limit working hours to reduce burnout. France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and others have passed similar laws in recent years.

With unhappiness on the rise worldwide, much of it work-related, worker satisfaction has become an increasingly important issue. A Gallup poll conducted in 142 countries found that negative experiences, or unhappiness, increased from 24% of people surveyed in 2006 to 32% in 2023.

And one of the main causes of unhappiness is stress and anxiety at work. “Worker stress around the world is at historic highs,” the Gallup survey says. The percentage of workers who feel “a lot” of stress at work rose from 31% in 2009 to 44% last year.

Additionally, proponents of “right to disconnect” laws cite research showing that companies with happy employees are more successful than those with unhappy employees. A famous study of 1,793 sales employees at his BT communications company in the UK showed that happy employees were 13% more productive than unhappy employees.

One of the study authors, Jean-Emmanuel de Neve, a professor at the University of Oxford, said: “When workers are happier, they make more calls per hour worked, so they work faster and, importantly, more “We found that many calls resulted in sales.”

Business groups in several countries have opposed “right to disconnect” laws, saying many industries are facing emergencies that can only be resolved by sending out emails to key employees after hours. There is.

Critics say businesses suffer when employees don’t respond to urgent emails simply because they don’t want to be bothered while sunbathing on the beach. And in some countries with strong labor laws and low productivity, they argue, these laws could contribute to further declines in productivity.

Also, some employees, especially parents of young children, prefer to respond to emails outside of normal work hours. This gives you more flexibility to care for your children or elderly parents, and allows you to respond to work messages during the night.

The best alternative to the nation’s blanket “right to disconnect” laws is regulations that protect employees from unreasonable unpaid work hours while providing for reasonable exceptions. For example, it makes no sense to prohibit a boss from calling someone to ask if they can work overtime to fill in for a colleague who calls in sick.

Companies could also be induced to allow employees to collaborate with each other to answer after-hours calls and emails.

Jen Fischer, Miami-based head of U.S. human sustainability at Deloitte, a consulting firm with more than 450,000 employees worldwide, says that at her company, employees ”, he said.

“We strongly encourage people to create rotating schedules so they can take time away from work and devices without feeling guilty,” Fisher told me. Told. “For example, you can disconnect yourself on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but I can disconnect myself twice the rest of the week. You can also swap days if you want. can.”

“Countries with overwork cultures are experiencing workforce burnout,” Fischer added.

That’s really true. The problem makes many workers miserable, especially in the United States, causes high turnover rates in companies, and costs countries billions in additional health care costs.

On the other hand, a blanket ban on work-related emails and after-hours phone calls would be counterproductive, as it could hurt productivity and economic growth.

But labor laws that encourage companies to allow employees to take time off from work make a lot of sense. Technology has brought us closer to friends and relatives, but it has also brought about global worker burnout. It’s time to fight back!

Andres Oppenheimer He is an editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist for the Miami Herald, anchor of CNN Spanish’s “Oppenheimer Presenters,” and author of seven books, several of which are in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. , published in Japanese.

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