More than a third of business leaders would vote against UK ‘switch off’ law for employees
More than a third of business leaders would vote against UK ‘switch off’ law for employees
Posted on 12 Sep 2022
Over a third of business leaders have said they would vote against the introduction of a law in the UK that would protect an employee’s right ‘to switch off’, similar to the law now in place in France.
B2B service comparison website iCompario surveyed 2,000 UK employees on their views to introduce a similar employee right ‘to switch off’ law here. The legislation, which was introduced in France in 2017, bans employers from expecting employees to engage in communications, such as emails, outside of working hours. The data found that almost two thirds of UK workers would support a similar law being introduced here.
iCompario also asked UK employees about pressure they feel to be contactable and respond to emails when not in work, as well as how easily they are able to ‘switch off’ during time off.
Despite the number of those in business leadership roles opposed to the introduction of a ‘right to disconnect’ law, more than half of those in senior roles felt ‘very pressured’ to check work emails and correspondence outside of their contracted work hours (53%).
3.5 million UK workers ‘feel very pressured’ to check their work emails and other job-related correspondence outside of their contracted working hours, with a further 6.5million ‘feeling some pressure’ to do so. Only a third of those surveyed ‘don’t feel any pressure’ to check emails when not in work.
A further 1.8 million UK employees admit they put pressure on themselves to do this, meaning it doesn’t come from their employer.
According to the findings UK employees take an average of 5.7 days to truly switch off when out of office, but with typical holidays abroad for Brits lasting just 8.7 days on average, the time spent relaxing reduces substantially to just 3 days on average.
Downtime disappears completely when you consider UK adults spend just 3.3 days when holidaying on home soil.
One in seven admit they’re never able to switch off (14%) while on holiday.
The survey findings support the notion that employees who constantly check their work emails never truly switch off, and really enforces the act of allowing yourself a regular break from work and the comms that come with it as an essential step in being able to relax properly.