What do you feel when you knock off from work for the weekend?

Is it a sense or achievement about the week’s accomplishments? Are you filled with excitement at the thought of just focusing on your personal stuff for the next few days?

Or…do you feel like you’re just kidding yourself and you’ll be monitoring your inbox over the weekend with rising dread about what awaits you Monday morning?

If so, you might need to think about setting boundaries so as to disconnect from work.

We are responsible for setting boundaries for ourselves, and, guess what, others will typically respect them once communicated. Your work/life balance will be all the better for it. What’s more, modelling how to set boundaries to your team can be contagious and beneficial for your business.

With remote working becoming permanent for many companies, clocking in and out can be difficult to define. So, to clarify expectations and protect employee downtime should we be adding ‘Right to disconnect’ policies to our employee handbooks?

Research suggests that people are more productive when they have time to fully disconnect and recharge.

To help your employees (and yourself) to disconnect, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you need an employee presence online all the time?
• Who are these employees and how are they to be compensated for their time?
• What do you have in place to ensure your employees make good decisions about managing their time online and off?
• What additional structures and frameworks could you provide to empower your employees to make better decisions about managing their time online and off?

Understandably, 9am-5pm might not be how everyone wants to work. Family and other commitments might mean your team members prefer a 12pm-12am vibe. Optimising those hours for your online presence could totally work if properly communicated.

Of course, to get a business running at optimum levels you must sometimes make yourself available to clients and employees at all hours. For example, the good people at The Central App can’t completely switch off. How else would we know there’s an incident on State Highway 1 or treacherous icy conditions out there while we’re buttering our breakfast bagel?

Good communication, setting realistic expectations, and tag teaming when the going gets tough can go a long way in keeping the team feeling valued and respected.

The article What Happens To Your Brain When You Work On Vacation (fastcompany.com) really backs up the importance of disconnecting from work when you are fortunate enough to go on vacation. Imagine not being able to recall the treasured memories of your holiday because you had your work brain engaged?

If you have any questions around introducing the right to disconnect into your workplace, get in touch with us at EasiNZ.