- [Narrator] No texts or emails from your boss after hours,
meeting-free Fridays
and an app that kicks you out of chats.
Some companies and governments,
such as Spain, Portugal and France
want employees to unplug from work.
- I don't feel bad or I don't have the urge
of respond, and if I'm enjoying my social life,
if I'm with my family or friends.
- [Narrator] The pandemic thrust the issue
of disconnecting from work
under a new light as millions
across the globe began working from home.
In one poll conducted by software company Buffer,
nearly 1/3 of respondents said unplugging
from their duties after hours
was the hardest adjustment.
- One implication is clear from ongoing research.
People need time to disconnect.
- [Narrator] Amid a wave of resignations in the US
with as many as 4.4 million people leaving jobs
in September, companies are looking
for solutions in order to retain their workers.
Goldman Sachs said it would enforce limits
on working hours after some employees complained
they were working 95 hours per week.
While this San Francisco startup
is testing digital tools to make workers disconnect.
- We'd rather solve those problems than understand them.
And the only way that we see to do that
is to start experimenting.
- [Narrator] To find out what these business policies do
for company productivity and employee retention,
we look to Europe where legislation
to give workers the right to disconnect
has been implemented in several countries.
- I think the employees are more active,
more proactive and more productive.
- [Narrator] Although technology helped employees
stay connected during the pandemic,
for many, it also blurred the lines
between work life and home life.
- If you have work on your mind,
you can't really be present in both places
at the same time.
- [Narrator] That's Liuba Belkin,
a professor at Lehigh University
who has researched the impact of receiving emails
from work out of hours on employee well-being.
- It not only hurts the non-work life
but it also might impede your productivity as well
because you're not really thinking about work either.
You're not fully present for work.
- [Narrator] But companies that tell workers
to disconnect face a number of risks.
Belkin's research argues that if disconnection policies
are not implemented correctly,
they could actually end up having negative effects
on mental health.
- Yes, workers have to have a right to disconnect,
however, there are certain jobs
that prohibiting people to check email
actually might increase anxiety
because you would be thinking what's going on?
What if there is an emergency
or something else is happening?
- [Narrator] In Europe where Portugal's parliament
recently announced labor laws
to give workers the right not to be contacted after hours,
companies have had mixed reactions,
while some have complained that such rules
could hurt flexibility, others have embraced them.
This is the Spanish branch of global insurer AXA,
which introduced disconnection policies
in a collective bargaining agreement
as the right to disconnect became law
in France and Spain in 2017 and 2018.
The Spanish law calls on employers
to set up internal policies
that define how employees exercise
their right to disconnect.
But how does that work in practice?
- We had room for improvement.
So that's why we took the decision
to promote it even more,
to improve some behaviors,
to improve some habits
that are present in the Spanish culture.
Maybe in the past, we tend to have meetings later
in the evening.
- [Narrator] We visited Nuria,
an employee who is mostly working from home.
Her job is to provide training
to managers and workers
and she is required by company policy
to finish her meetings by 6 PM.
At the end of her working day,
Nuria uses an app to log how many hours she's worked.
- So whenever I finish my working day,
what I usually do
is get in my phone, log into an app called Tempo Mobile.
Press the Salida, which is exit
and I just go out to enjoy my day.
- [Narrator] After that, she says she uses her time
to catch up with friends, like her colleague Alberto.
(Nuria speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] According to the company's internal surveys,
employee loyalty and satisfaction
at AXA has improved significantly.
- Legal disconnections produce more efficiency,
productivity, and good relationships.
- [Narrator] It's hard to determine exactly
how these policies have influenced business performance.
Overall, AXA's parent company had a challenging year in 2020
with shrinking sales during the pandemic.
Legislation that requires companies to refrain
from contacting employees after hours
has not been enacted in the US.
- In the United States, the culture's so much work oriented.
I think it would be very tough battle
to pass any laws in the United States like that.
- [Narrator] State lawmakers in New York City
proposed a Right to Disconnect Bill in 2018.
However, it was opposed strongly by business leaders
during a public hearing in 2019.
- We do not support the Right to Disconnect Bill
due to concerns that this would negatively impact
our member businesses,
particularly those that are small businesses.
- It's unwise to use New York City
as a testing ground for such a novel approach.
- [Narrator] Some US businesses
have considered introducing their own rules
to help workers to unplug.
Loom, a tech startup developing
a video communication platform
has more than 170 employees.
- People are working at Loom all around the world.
- [Narrator] Its co-founder says to help employees
in different time zones not to work after hours,
the startup created a program
that can disconnect people from group chats
in the communication platform Slack.
- And it's a really simple thing.
It just automates the flow of kicking out of channels.
- There's no hard data yet
but Loom says it is evaluating the impact
of the policies, which are meant
to help attract and retain talent
during a period of economic growth.
- Employees in tech have more optionality
than they've ever had before.
Keeping your employees happy and engaged
in this hiring market in technology
where people can work anywhere
and from anywhere, and workers in tech
are more in demand than ever
is just like good for business.
(lively music)