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When it comes to work-life balance and the right to disconnect, we can’t always have our cake and eat it too

I have long accepted that work will to some degree infiltrate our personal lives and vice versa and I just do my best to maintain a good balance between “work to live” and “live to work”. So, it was a bit of revelation when I read a TODAY report last week with a headline containing the term “right to disconnect”.

If employees have the “right to disconnect” during their off hours, surely it is only fair for employers to slap the “right to connect” on employees during their prescribed working hours, says the author.

If employees have the “right to disconnect” during their off hours, surely it is only fair for employers to slap the “right to connect” on employees during their prescribed working hours, says the author.

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Once a month on a Friday evening, my friends and I would gather to have a friendly mahjong game to let off some steam at the end of a work week.

When one of us occasionally has to attend to work messages during a game, the other three would make sympathetic noises while hoping for a swift resolution to the work issue.

“Wah, how come your boss like that one!” we would ask.

No one kicks up a fuss unless the offending work message comes in really late, say after 10pm.

I have long accepted that work will to some degree infiltrate our personal lives and vice versa and I just do my best to maintain a good balance between “work to live” and “live to work”.

Unless I am expecting something important and urgent to come my way, I usually don’t check my work emails after my work hours and over the weekends.

When I am on vacation, my automatic out-of-office notification tells people “I will have very limited or no access to emails”.

But I let my bosses and team know they can text me if there is a fire I can help put out from a thousand miles away.

So, it was a bit of revelation when I read a TODAY report last week with a headline containing the term “right to disconnect” — the right for employees to switch off from any form of work outside of their normal working hours without reprimand from bosses.

The issue had come up in a parliamentary question by Member of Parliament Melvin Yong on whether the Government would consider incorporating aspects of “right to disconnect” legislation in an upcoming advisory on mental health.

The general idea is that limiting work during off days and down time will reduce the toll on our mental well-being, particularly as the pandemic rages on.

Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad replied that it may not be feasible to enact such a law given that Singapore workers may be covering different time zones, and that the Government will observe how it is working out in other countries before considering whether it could apply for Singapore.

Be that as it may, Mr Yong on Wednesday (Oct 14) said in Parliament that such a law would help employees have protected time to rest and recharge.

Given how much Singaporeans’ lives revolve around work, it’s useful to discuss the concept and implications of this “right to disconnect”.

In the absence of a law for now, how do we exercise such a right and what are some pitfalls to avoid?

PROTECTION FOR WORKERS?

It is perhaps no surprise that France, long known (or notorious) for its myriad labour laws to protect workers, enacted such a law in 2017 to uphold workers’ “right to disconnect”.

Yes, if the “right to disconnect” becomes law in Singapore in some form, it will protect workers who are unable to stand up for themselves to “slave drivers” who demand their employees to be at their beck and call during and even after work hours.

But not everyone has a slave driver for a boss.

At LinkedIn, I didn’t have to do many meetings via video at night because my US bosses understood time zone differences.

So, instead of putting a law in place, perhaps another way to go about it is to engender nasty bosses to be more respectful of an employee’s personal time and not so nasty?

It’s worth trying as they may be open to reason. Employees should make their expectations clear so bosses know your first priority is to complete your work (especially the urgent cases) during office hours, and that you have other commitments after that.

If they are immune to reason, consider seeking help from a trusted colleague in the human resources department. Chances are, you won’t be the first and your input may help make a case for constructive actions to be taken.

To be fair, it’s not just workplace tyrants who want their workers to be “always on”. The “right to disconnect” will also save workaholics who happily toil away until a job is done to exacting standards.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES?

But somehow, even as I welcome the protection that comes with a “right to disconnect”, I worry that it may be too stifling.

If employees have the “right to disconnect” during their off hours, surely it is only fair for employers to slap the “right to connect” on employees during their prescribed working hours.

This will take away whatever flexibility some of us have (even before the pandemic, and certainly during the pandemic) to do work when it is more convenient for us.

I’ve always appreciated this flexibility. I did a lot of work in the evenings because I am not a morning person.

Sometimes, it was because I needed to run a personal errand the following morning, so it was helpful for me to get things out of the way the night before.

Because I was grateful to have this flexibility (and I love what I do), I paid it back and didn’t flinch when I had to go the extra mile outside of my normal work hours when necessary to get the job done in a timely manner. This wasn’t bad for my career either.

I can’t imagine having to apply for leave or time off just to go onto my favourite e-commerce sites whenever there is a “flash sale” during work hours, or queue up for free yogurt and coffee samples at Raffles Place.

And if we have a law that gives employees protected time, what does that mean for those of us who need more time to do a piece of work compared to our colleagues and who typically make up for it during our off hours?

For those who are already in jobs with regional or global responsibilities, how will we continue to do a good job if we can’t (sometimes) talk to or message our counterparts around the world outside of our normal working hours?

What about employees working in startups racing to be the next tech unicorn?

And will the shine of our country as a regional / global business hub dims because we are seen to be less “business friendly” as a result of the “right to disconnect”?

OTHER WAYS TO PROTECT MENTAL HEALTH?

The more I think more about the “right to disconnect”, the more I think a law on it may be too blunt an instrument to address workplace mental wellness issues.

As workers, we can try to fix things within our control.

Take how I prevented myself from being overwhelmed by back-to-back video meetings. These were tedious and hindered me from doing actual work during office hours.

As much as I could, I declined meetings that were clearly “for your update” in nature (and requested for an email update instead).

The same treatment applied for meetings which I could not see a clear need for me to be present (and the organisers of these meetings usually agreed after I asked for clarifications). Sometimes, I ruffled the wrong feathers (and egos) by declining the meetings, but it was worth paying the price.

Our employers can play a bigger part by helping us be more informed about mental wellness, and offering more flexible compensation policies (such as extra vacation time for “over-time”) and working schedules (such as a four-day work week).

There’s a price tag on everything.

While it’s difficult to argue against a law that gives workers protected time to disconnect, it also seems like such a law can cut both ways and take out the good along with the bad and the ugly at the same time.

We have to choose carefully so that we end up with something we can afford to pay for.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Roger Pua has more than 25 years of international work experience, and was most recently senior director of brand marketing and corporate communications at LinkedIn. He has also authored and published a book that sheds light on living with dementia in the family.

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