Ping fatigue sparks push for right-to-disconnect laws
The fight for right-to-disconnect laws is heating up as workers push back against after-hours pings. The U.S. lags, but global momentum is at full-speed.
A lawsuit filed against Apple claiming its BYOD policies amount to surveillance raises an issue that is drawing increased attention from lawmakers. New Jersey and California have introduced bills to give employees the "right to disconnect," freeing them from the obligation to respond to emails, Slack and text messages after work hours have ended.
This legislative pushback against always-on work cultures has gained the most traction overseas. Still, it is beginning to pick up steam in the U.S., particularly in California and New Jersey, where legislation is pending but unlikely to pass this year. Internationally, it's a different story.
Right-to-disconnect laws already exist in France, Spain, Ireland, Brazil and other countries. In August, Australia enacted its right-to-disconnect law, allowing employees to ignore after-hours messages "unless their refusal is unreasonable." According to the law, an unreasonable refusal might include ignoring work-related emergencies outside regular working hours, especially when employees are compensated for such availability.
The Apple lawsuit also highlights this issue. Filed by an Apple employee, the claim alleges that the company's personal usage policies invade employee privacy and that "Apple employees must be reachable for work and have access to Apple's network while on and off duty."
In April, California Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, introduced a right-to-disconnect bill, AB-2751. He remarked then that "smartphones have blurred the boundaries between work and home life."
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has expressed opposition to right-to-disconnect bills in California and New Jersey. In a blog post this week, SHRM argued that New Jersey's proposed legislation introduces compliance uncertainties, particularly around vague terms such as "emergency," and fails to account for differences across industries and job roles.
Best practice is delayed messaging
Despite legislative hurdles, some argue that giving employees the right to disconnect is a best practice for employers.
Pamela Garber, a therapist at the Grand Central Counseling Group in New York, said, "The constant cadence of emails and messages interrupts the needed break and demarcation between work and personal." She added that this "ongoing communication standard leads to psychological stress and a diminished standard of privacy and personhood."
Ongoing communication standard leads to psychological stress and a diminished standard of privacy and personhood.
Pamela GarberTherapist, Grand Central Counseling Group
Garber suggested that offering employees the option to disconnect can demonstrate care from employers, which could, in turn, boost morale and productivity.
Amy Spurling, CEO of Compt, a lifestyle and workstyle benefits platform, believes salaried employees should have clear expectations about after-hours availability. She added that companies should factor on-call responsibilities into overall compensation packages.
While Compt does not have a formal written policy about after-hours communication, it maintains a strong cultural norm against it.
"If the leadership team is messaging people after hours, everyone else is going to do that," Spurling said. Employees can use delayed messaging features in tools like Outlook and Slack, she noted.
"When we refuse to respond to you after hours, people get in line pretty quick," she said.
Patrick Thibodeau is an editor at large for TechTarget Editorial who covers HCM and ERP technologies. He's worked for more than two decades as an enterprise IT reporter.
