In today’s hyperconnected world, the boundaries between work and personal life have increasingly blurred, leading to rising concerns about employee wellbeing. Already implemented in parts of Europe, the UK government has proposed to introduce the ‘Right to Disconnect’ law. A similar model that was adopted in Ireland, Belgium and most recently Australia allows employees to separate from work and not be required to engage in work-related communication outside normal working hours.
Although many employees take steps to avoid work emails after hours and turn off notifications to mentally disconnect, a recent report states 62% still believe managers should actively ensure they can fully switch off outside of work, while 59% feel that organisations should enforce these boundaries. These staggering statistics highlight the significant gap between individual efforts and the structural support needed to protect employees’ personal time.
With people increasingly working beyond their scheduled hours and struggling to properly switch off, introducing this new legislation in the UK could be the first step in addressing the damaging effects of blurred work-life balance. For leaders, this presents an opportunity to foster a healthier, more sustainable workplace by actively supporting the balance between work and personal life. Without these protections, a toxic environment forms, harming not only employee well-being but also that of leaders.
In this article, I will explore three ways the right to disconnect law could impact the workplace, emphasising its effects on focus, productivity and work-life balance.
Enhanced Focus
One of the first ways the new legislation could affect the workplace is by enhancing focus. With clearer boundaries between work and personal time, employees can fully recharge. This leads to better concentration and efficiency on the job, increasing outputs and higher-quality work – two key elements many leaders look for.
By reducing the pressures to respond to work communications outside of work hours, people can maintain a healthier relationship with fatigue, allowing them to approach tasks with greater clarity and attention. This, in turn, helps boost the ability to manage priorities more effectively and focus on complex tasks. Actively supporting full disengagement during downtime is effectively a practical investment by the employer in the next week’s performance wave. It therefore not only enhances individual productivity and creativity but also drives a more engaged workforce overall. The proper separation between work and life supports performance sustainability and enables leaders to reach organisational goals more quickly and efficiently. Blurring boundaries slowly undermines employee capacity and has the opposite effect.
Improved Collaboration
A second benefit the “Right to Disconnect” law could have on work efficiency is facilitating smoother collaboration between team members. Well-rested and mentally recharged employees can work together more effectively, elevating team dynamics and driving innovative outcomes. Exhaustion is the enemy of experimentation and innovation. With increased mental clarity and engagement communication becomes stronger, enabling teams to brainstorm and address issues with ease. Sharing ideas is one of the most important aspects of working in a team, therefore, it is vital leaders create clear boundaries between work and life to elevate this.
Enhanced collaboration not only improves productivity but also fosters a culture of trust and creativity within the team, where individuals feel empowered enough to contribute their best ideas. Consequently, this allows team performance to reach new heights, leading to improved outcomes at every level.
Increased Job Satisfaction
While the forthcoming law improves collaboration and enhances focus, it also promotes greater job satisfaction for both leaders and employees. When personal time is respected and understood to be the foundation of the person who is actually doing the work – after all, when a person is employed, we are hiring the whole person, not just the bit that does the job – happiness, morale and job contentment all rise. Acknowledging the human being as the source of human doing creates a more harmonious and psychologically safe work environment, where individuals feel more valued. In fact, according to a recent survey, 53% of workers who feel respected in the workplace say they would stay longer in the company.
Implementing the right to disconnect law will facilitate employees adopting healthier high-performance behaviours which in turn drive motivation, engagement, productivity and job satisfaction. The latter is especially vital, due to the impact that shared job and organisational satisfaction has on the creation of a positive workplace culture. Satisfied employees are more likely to take ownership of their role and be open with ideas, allowing leaders to build trust and collaborate more effectively. Greater job satisfaction also has an obvious positive effect on talent management and retention, ensuring long-term as well as immediate-term organisational success.
Ultimately, 67% of UK employees feel unable to fully switch off from work or maintain personal boundaries – a statistic that suggests legislation is now needed to focus leadership minds on the value of recovery and how to recalibrate ways of working that have blurred or even obliterated the vital boundary between work and life. The potential benefits are clear – enhanced focus, improved collaboration and increased happiness and job satisfaction. The mental health and burnout risks associated with achieving more with the same or fewer human resources by effectively bleeding work into evenings and weekends are just as real. In the long run, this law might act as a much-needed catalyst to shape more positive workplace cultures which, in turn, improve employee retention, engagement and loyalty. It is time for businesses to recognise that clear boundaries between work and wider life not only boost individual performance at work but also contribute directly to employee and business performance sustainability.
Lesley Cooper
Lesley Cooper is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience in the design and delivery of all elements of employee wellbeing management programmes. In 1997 Lesley founded WorkingWell, an award-winning specialist consultancy that helps companies manage workplace pressure in a way that facilitates growth and development. She is also the co-author of Brave New Leader: How to Transform Workplace Pressure into Sustainable Performance and Growth.
