Right to Disconnect? For Real?!

I never thought I would say this, but New York may have something that could start a trend here in the states...something that has already happened in other countries... and I'm kind of excited about it. 

I'm talking about the Right to Disconnect Law proposal. 

63% of Americans check their phones every hour, 9% check every 5 minutes. Some of this could be because we are so obsessed with social media, and staying in touch with family, friends, various public figures/celebrities... but another part of it is work-a-holics not knowing how to stop their work day. 

The idea behind "Right to Disconnect" is to ban employers sending emails/texts/calls to employees after hours and/or if an employer sends an email to an employee after hours, the employee will not going to be required to answer. In some corporations, employers would hold that over an employee and reprimand them if they don't respond. If an employee is constantly consumed with working, fixing problems (especially AFTER HOURS) it can certainly cause stress, and potentially lead to other health problems. In an article from KHOU, Dr. Farrah Hauke is quoted saying, "Depression, heart disease, it can make people feel incredibly stressed out, they might make a rash decision, they might have impaired sleep." 

Now, this isn't including certain professions, like doctors and other first responder kinds of jobs. In other kinds of professions (IT, equipment maintenance etc...) who have an on-call system should implement that, and keep a rotation going. If "person A" is on call one week, then "person B" should be on call the next week and should not bother "person A" since it isn't their week to be on-call.  

France set a similar law in place on January 1, 2017. On top of lowering the work week to 35 hours and allowing more vacation time, there is also now the Right to Disconnect. The law also allows up to 11 hours uninterrupted off time, so now employees HAVE a personal life and don't feel like they're working all. the. time. Employers/Management can still email their employees but they would NOT have to answer. The Philippines followed suit in  February 2017 the Department of Labor & Employment in the Philippines states employees have the right to disconnect without getting punished for it. 

As someone who has seen the receiving end of constant calls/emails/texts, I know how it can cause a strain on someone's health and how it can make people feel like they can never decompress from work. Sometimes they feel like they have to constantly check their phone because what if their boss sent them an email and tells them they have to respond or they can get written up and/or fired? 

When someone goes to work (8-5, 10-6, whatever) then at the end of the day, they go home... that's it. Work is done. While I do see where some instances, an employer needs to ask an employee a question after hours (i.e "Where did you put _____?", or "Hey, what time is that meeting tomorrow?") that's understandable, BUT to have something every day, and require employees to respond (or else!) at every beckon call...that's abuse of power. It's also one thing to have an on-call person/people, but to constantly harass/call employees (who are NOT ON-CALL) after the work day is over just because they're salary (and they make it seem like "they own you") and make them feel like they HAVE to answer...that's just abuse of power. Having the Right to Disconnect Law would take power away from the employer to abuse their employees just because they are salaried. 

I guess it's safe to say that I'm all for The Right to Disconnect.