Digital connectivity has blurred the traditional spatial and temporal boundaries between work and personal life
We live through ruthless times, in which 70-hour work weeks, no weekly rests, and the glorification of burnout have become the new gospel of productivity. But behind this façade lies a callous erosion of workers’ rights and human dignity.
The ‘right to disconnect’ refers to a worker's right to disengage from work-related communications outside official working hours, without facing negative consequences at work.
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Digital connectivity has blurred the traditional spatial and temporal boundaries between work and personal life. While technologies such as modern communication systems including emails, instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and video conferencing platforms like Zoom have made work more flexible and ‘seamless’, they have in the process forced employees to be available ‘always online’.
No switching off from work
As a result, a vast number of workers do not have a scheduled exit or detachment from work even if they are not within the windows of their working time or within the physical boundaries of their workspace. They are always one step away from an ‘urgent’ meeting or an email that needs to be replied ‘immediately’. There is a widespread misconception that this is an issue faced only by white-collar occupations like IT workers, but in reality, almost no work is immune from this growing problem. It is not often appreciated that even blue-collar workers such as those engaged in manufacturing are not immune.
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This phenomenon has serious consequences, ranging from burnout to physical and mental issues workers face. The tragic death of Anna Sebastian, a 26-year-old EY employee, last July, apparently due to extreme work pressure, was an example that highlighted this issue. In recent weeks, several trade unions such as the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) have campaigned and called for a healthy work-life balance.
The changing nature of workspace
The concept of workspace and working time has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Since the advent of industrialisation, two limitations have defined the boundary between work and personal life for a standard occupation: the geographical location of the workspace and the limited working hours.
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For example, imagine a factory worker or an office clerk who worked before the age of digitalisation or contractualisation. Earlier, his/her workspace was geographically defined, largely in terms of the location. The time the worker spent within that geographical location was also limited by labour regulations, such as an 8-hour working day. These two restrictions defined and divided his/her day into work and personal life.
But for a vast number of modern jobs, these two restrictions have been violated due to changes in technology, especially the development of modern communication systems. Now, a worker can work without coming to a geographically defined workspace through work-from-home or similar arrangements. Similar modes such as work from anywhere and hybrid work, in which the worker occasionally goes to an office are widespread now. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that followed, this mode has become ubiquitous.
This results in a completely one-sided power equation at the workspace, where employers can demand that their workers be available almost endlessly.
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In the ‘always-online’ culture of modern workspaces, it is increasingly difficult to separate work and personal life. Digital systems keep you at work, or the pressure of work is always hanging over your head like a sword of Damocles. Workers are now obliged to be in a state of perpetual readiness and meet impossible deadlines. They are expected to respond to work requirements even after working hours, often late at night or on weekends, and even during vacations.
Impact on workers
This phenomenon of always being online affects workers mentally and physically, resulting in the destruction of their personal and social lives. This culture effectively eliminates the possibilities for true post-work relaxation.
It has been widely reported that Indian workers, especially in the IT sector, face severe sleep deprivation, resulting in fatigue, poor concentration, and long-term health problems. According to the State of Emotional Well-being Report India 2024, mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression are now common among Indian workers. According to the report, over 90 per cent of corporate employees under the age of 25 displayed symptoms of anxiety and only 3 per cent of employees maintained a healthy digital balance. The never-ending screen exposure and lack of proper breaks from work contribute to health problems such as eye strain, headaches, back pain, and other issues, it observed.
This mental and physical toll destroys a worker’s social life as they hardly get enough time to engage in their hobbies, spend time with family or genuinely focus on themselves.
Women workers bear a double burden
This phenomenon, like most of the changes in workspaces, affects women workers disproportionately because of their caregiving responsibilities for children and the elderly. Balancing these responsibilities with professional demands is overwhelming. Inevitably, these duties force women to compromise their career growth paths.
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There is also a looming danger of reinforcement of workplace inequality. Women who prioritise personal boundaries due to the double burden they bear may be perceived as less ‘committed’. At the same time, male workers who escape such household responsibilities due to the patriarchal structures in our society are often at an advantage.
According to the 2024 International Labour Organisation (ILO) report, women in sectors such as information technology (IT), communication, and technical professions in India work, on average, 56.5 hours per week, implying more than 11 hours a day over a five-day workweek – or more than 9 hours daily in a six-day working week.
The same report found that young women aged 15 to 24 in IT and in media roles face even longer hours, averaging 57 hours a week. Shockingly, Indian women in technical and communication fields are logging the longest working hours in the world. In comparison, women in Germany’s IT and media sectors work an average of 32 hours per week, while their counterparts in Russia average 40 hours.
No legal protection in India
India has labour laws that govern the work time of workers. But all of them predate digitalisation and are outdated for contemporary workplace realities. The world of work has changed comprehensively since then and the law just hasn’t kept pace with these changes.
For example, a provision in the Factory Act or Shops and Commercial Establishment Act can regulate the working time in the traditional sense. But what about the new reality of sudden emails and video meetings? The law is inadequate to address this.
Even though the existing laws are inadequate, some of the spirit behind their provisions can be taken as inspiration. According to section 56 of the Factory Act, a factory worker’s workday, including breaks, should not last more than 10 and a half hours in total. But in special cases, if there's a valid reason written down, the Chief Inspector can allow it to go up to 12 hours.
The historical roots of this provision date to the early days of industrialisation in Britain, when workers were forced to work for 16 to 18 hours. In the face of much resistance from workers as well as reformers, legal provisions were introduced that limited working days. In hindsight, this may be regarded as enforcing the workers’ right to disconnect in a different era. There is a crying need to modernise the laws to reflect contemporary reality.
In 2019, Member of Parliament Supriya Sule introduced a Private Member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha advocating for the right to disconnect from work beyond official working hours. The Bill proposed that companies failing to comply with its provisions would be liable to pay a penalty amounting to one per cent of the total remuneration of all their employees. However, this move has not resulted in any viable legislative change. Although big business would resist such measures, the state must take a more partisan stand for the sake of fairness.
There is a perception promoted by employers that being always available improves workers’ efficiency. However, evidence shows that overworked workers become not just less productive but more prone to committing errors, sometimes fatal ones. For instance, several recent reports by the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety on the spate of railway accidents reveal that accidents have happened because employees, particularly loco pilots, have been working prolonged shifts without rest.
Studies also show that the inability to detach from work affects employee creativity and critical thinking, reducing their ability to contribute to value addition. Companies that fail to take this into account face higher attrition rates as workers seek better work-life balance elsewhere.
Global comparisons: Lessons from other countries
Several countries have taken progressive steps to recognise and implement the right to disconnect.
France, in 2017, became the first European country to formally adopt and implement the right to disconnect as a measure against increasing working time outside work hours. This legal provision, famously known as El Khomri Law, requires companies with over 50 employees to negotiate with workers on rules governing after-work communications.
Later, Spain and Italy introduced similar laws requiring employers and employees to establish agreements that respect personal time and limit digital communication outside working hours. Other European countries such as Belgium and Portugal followed, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2024, Australia introduced a significantly important legislation to address the issue. According to this law, employees of non-small businesses, which are defined as places where more than 15 employees work, employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) outside their working hours, unless doing so is unreasonable. This includes contact (or attempted contact) from an employer or a third party such as clients. The provision defines the word ‘contact’ to include a range of communication channels used to engage with employees, such as calls, emails, texts, social media, and messaging services. The legislation allows for some flexibility for both parties by making fair agreements for such contact, provided additional payments are made to employees.
Legal and policy recommendations for India
The approach in India to address this scenario needs to be multifaceted. The first and foremost should be to bring legislative changes in the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code by incorporating aspects of the right to disconnect. Given the diversity in Indian workspaces, an imaginative approach would require incorporating sector-specific regulations instead of trying to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach.
While the state must be the prime driver of change, companies ought to introduce internal policies limiting work-related communications outside office hours and encourage a culture that respects employees’ personal lives. Most importantly, we are in dire need of a cultural shift away from a system that glorifies longer working days and has a “macho image” associated with it. Abandoning such a mind frame would enable us to move towards a more humane work-life balance.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the article are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
