That familiar ping of a work notification arriving just as you settle in for the evening is something millions of people know all too well. Even when you tell yourself you will only take a quick look, the work mindset kicks back in and any sense of relaxation disappears. While ignoring your boss’s message after hours can get you in trouble at some companies, in others it is actually your legal right to do exactly that. Taking a proper break from emails, calls, and constant workplace notifications is not a luxury but a genuine necessity for mental health, better sleep, and a fuller life outside of work.
The generation that grew up alongside social media and constant connectivity has blurred the line between professional and personal life more than any generation before it. Constant digital availability has sped up collaboration and made remote teamwork easier, but it has also created an unspoken expectation that employees should always be reachable, whether that means responding in group chats or checking shared digital workspaces long after their shift has ended. As a response to this growing problem, several countries have introduced what is known as the “right to disconnect,” a legal framework that prevents employers from penalizing workers for not answering calls or replying to messages outside of their paid hours.
Australia passed a law in 2024 giving employees this “right to disconnect.” Employers and clients can still reach out to workers beyond scheduled hours, but staff now have the legal backing to decline responding unless their refusal is considered “unreasonable.” The Fair Work Commission of Australia is the body responsible for determining what qualifies as unreasonable, weighing up factors like the employee’s role and level of responsibility, the method of contact used, and just how disruptive the attempt at contact was.
France was actually ahead of the curve, introducing the “right to disconnect” from work emails as far back as 2017. Companies with more than 50 employees are required to negotiate acceptable contact hours with worker representatives, and failure to comply carries a penalty of up to 1 percent of the total employee wage bill. Belgium followed in 2022, granting workers the right to ignore work-related messages after hours, a protection that initially applied only to public sector employees before being extended to include private sector workers at companies with 20 or more staff.
Portugal has taken one of the stronger stances, with its “right to rest” law outright prohibiting employers from contacting employees after working hours. Workers there are also entitled to at least 11 consecutive hours of nighttime rest, during which they can only be disturbed in genuine emergency situations. Spain similarly grants employees the right to disconnect from all work-related digital communication outside of established working hours, with the broader aim of promoting a healthier balance between professional obligations and personal life. Ireland has implemented a Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect, which gives workers the right to step away from work tasks after their regular hours end, while also placing a responsibility on employers to respect that right and refrain from reaching out after the workday is done.
Italy has approached the issue specifically through the lens of remote work. Employment contracts for remote workers in Italy must spell out designated rest periods and include measures that allow employees to fully disconnect from work devices during those times. The country recognizes that when the office is your home, the risk of the workday never truly ending is significantly higher.
The broader concept of work-life balance has been a subject of academic and policy discussion for decades, but the rise of smartphones and always-on internet access gave it a new urgency in the 2010s. Research by organizations such as the World Health Organization has linked excessive working hours and the inability to mentally detach from work to increased rates of burnout, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease. The term “burnout” was formally recognized by the WHO in 2019 as an occupational phenomenon, characterized by feelings of exhaustion, reduced professional efficacy, and growing mental distance from one’s job. Labor economists have long argued that productivity does not increase indefinitely with hours worked, and that rest is actually a critical component of sustained output. The right-to-disconnect movement represents a legislative acknowledgment of these realities, shifting the responsibility from individual workers to employers and governments to enforce healthier boundaries.
Do you think workers in every country should have a legal right to ignore work messages after hours, and does your country do enough to protect that boundary? Share your thoughts in the comments.
