LEGAL
By Pam Loch, Employment Law Solicitor and Managing Director of Loch Associates Group
HAVE THE LINES BETWEEN WORK AND PRIVATE LIFE BEEN BLURRED? One consequence of Covid-19 is that employers had to get a better understanding of their employees’ home life as employees were forced to work from home. Recent research by Aviva however has found that 52% of UK employees felt the boundaries between their work and home life have become increasingly blurred. It’s more than likely working from home, the increasing use of personal devices and social media for work purposes, has contributed to this. Some employees feel unable to switch off and under pressure to be constantly available to respond to messages from managers or work-related emails. With hybrid and remote working here to stay for some of us, do we now need to re-address the blurring of the lines between home and work life? Covid is not entirely to blame for the blurring of lines. The Health and Safety Executive repor ted that 828,000
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workers were suffering from workrelated stress, depression and anxiety in 2019/2020. Employees can feel an immense amount of pressure to respond to emails or messages whenever they are sent and in some cases, can feel bullied or harassed for not being available especially where work messages are sent by WhatsApp or by text. Some employers try to address this by providing mobile devices for work only to try to separate work and home life. However, with the increasing use of messaging via social media platforms such as WhatsApp, employees cannot escape messages sent to personal accounts on their own devices.
Some companies are already taking steps to allow employees to in effect, disconnect ❜❜
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