Our always-on work culture hurts everybody – this year, fight for your right to switch off

What's needed isn't rigid regulation, nor a free-for-all, but collective conversations that empower people to do things differently

As most of us return to work having enjoyed a well-earned Christmas break, it’s important to ask to what extent we actually disengaged. We may have been off work, but had we actually switched off? Were we able to give our families and friends, indeed ourselves, the necessary care and attention? Or were we still checking our phones, refusing to fully flick that work/play switch?

Being unable to switch off is especially difficult when we’re on holiday, but it also affects millions of workers every day, as the proliferation of technology has blurred the line between work and leisure. What was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning: switch on the kettle, or check your work email? Was checking your email the last thing you did before going to bed, too?

The pressure to be constantly on-call, to respond to your boss immediately or to start working as soon as you start your commute, is part of daily life for many workers. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 15% of us constantly monitor work emails outside work hours; another 25% check them at least five times a day. The impact of this culture is felt unequally: if you’re a parent or carer, for example, you’re might find it a lot harder to respond to emails out of hours.

Statistics show that workplace technology, and the implicit expectations that have accompanied it, is taking a toll on our health. A third of employees agree that remote access to their workplace means that they can’t switch off in their personal time; almost a fifth say it makes them feel as though they are under surveillance, making them anxious and impacting their sleep.

At a time when statistics from the Health and Safety Executive, the government agency responsible for workplace health, show that work-related stress, depression and anxiety are rising – resulting in the loss of 12.8 million working days last year – these figures are serious causes for concern.

The picture is complicated, however. CIPD also reports that 30% of employees see remote access to the workplace as empowering; 41% say it helps them manage their workload; 51% say it enables them to work flexibly.

For these reasons, some have warned against a blanket ban on out-of-hours work communications, on the grounds that it could actually make some people more stressed.

But the idea of a one-size-fits-all solution to our always-on work culture is a straw man. The “right to disconnect” should be about empowering employees to work in a way that’s right for them, the jobs they do and the lives they lead.

For example, France’s El Khomri law or “right to disconnect” doesn’t stipulate when employees can or can’t look at their phone, but rather requires companies with more than 50 employees to negotiate protocols with staff.

The insidious pressure of unstated expectations and the inherent power imbalances of the workplace mean this cannot be a case of individuals taking responsibility for how they work.

This is where unions come in. The necessity for collective action to secure individual freedom is core to our mission. Every day, unions like Prospect, where I work, collaborate with employers to develop fair, flexible frameworks that suit both their business and their workforce.

UNI Global, an international federation of unions of which Prospect is a part, has secured global agreements on the “right to disconnect” with Telefonica and Orange, building on work done by our sister unions in France and Spain.

Here in the UK, meanwhile, Prospect has run a pioneering Work Time/Your Time campaign. While the campaign may now be dated by its reference to Blackberries, its message was ahead of its time: mobile phones and remote email help you work smarter, but make sure you’re in control, not the technology. The results of the campaign included new stress risk assessment tools, better time off in lieu (TOIL) provisions, and increased take-up of flexible working.

Today, our union is harnessing technology to change our always-on work culture for the better. We are working with a group of unions and tech activists across the world on a project to develop new technology to help workers get control of their data – starting with an app called Spotlight, which will create transparency about how long people are on the move, using email and doing other work-related activities.

From location tracking to data-driven decision-making, Spotlight is one of many ways our union is helping its members seize the opportunities created by new technologies.

In so many cases, what’s needed to help people adapt to the changing ways we work isn't rigid regulation, nor a free-for-all, but collective conversations that empower people to do things differently

It’s for this reason that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development now argues that the future of work lies in “collective bargaining and social dialogue”, in “shaping new rights, adapting existing ones, regulating the use of new technologies, providing active support to workers transitioning to new jobs and anticipating skills needs”.

If the UK wants to keep up with the technological revolution transforming the global economy and enhance its workers’ wellbeing, this is the way it needs to start thinking.

Andrew Pakes is research director at the trade union Prospect.