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In August, Australia joined Ontario, France and several European and Latin American countries in passing a "right to disconnect" law. This law gives workers the right to ignore communications from their employer outside scheduled working hours.

While workers in occupations like emergency medicine or law enforcement expect unpredictable hours and disruptions, these laws target other occupations—ones where a crisis outside regular hours might only be a crisis because someone thinks it is. As one of my former co-workers noted with a sign above their desk: "Your lack of organization is not my emergency."

The right to disconnect targets the growing problems of overconnectedness and over-availability. In the past, if an employer wanted to reach an employee outside work hours, they usually had to telephone them. Now almost all employees can be reached at any time through mobile phones, email, or platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack or WhatsApp.

That ease of contact makes the division between work and home even more blurry than in the past. Some employees who work from home feel they need to compensate for their lack of visibility at the workplace by being accessible after working hours.

While some commentators have dismissed these laws as unrealistic and naive, or have claimed they will harm productivity, disconnecting is beneficial for both workers and employers. It can lead to healthier work-life balance, improved productivity, and more equitable and inclusive workplaces.

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