The right to disconnect is important, but it can’t work properly for remote/flexible workers without rethinking how we structure work itself.
If you’re building a team that is working remotely or flexibly, rigid “no contact after 6pm” rules don’t really fit. Your team might want to work 7-9pm so you can do school pickup at 3pm. How do you compensate or mitigate for “overtime” when it’s out of hours, but not over time?
Thinking about the right to disconnect from it’s purpose: The issue isn’t the timing here, it’s the lack of boundaries on total workload.
For right to disconnect to actually protect remote workers, HR needs different frameworks:
Clear definitions of “a day’s work” based on output/hours, not rigid availability windows
Asynchronous communication as the default (not expecting instant responses)
Proper workload monitoring so flexibility doesn’t become “work whenever AND respond instantly”
Compensation structures that reflect actual hours worked, not just when you’re “on the clock”
IMHO Right to disconnect laws are a good start, but without these changes, they either become unenforceable for remote workers or accidentally kill the flexibility that makes remote work valuable in the first place.
What’s your workplace doing to balance flexibility with genuine disconnection? What do you think Matt McFarlane ?