The Labour Government won a massive majority at the General Election last week, which means it can shape the country in whichever way it wants with little to no effective opposition.

One of Labour’s landmark proposals will be the New Deal for Working People, which it plans to start implementing in the first 100 days of governing. During the campaign, the now Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised the country that it will introduce a ‘right to disconnect’ law, which will set clear and formal boundaries for sending out-of-office work emails.

This has been a subject of debate in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, but it has increasingly come under the spotlight during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The normalisation of working-from-home and accelerated flexible working patterns has resulted in employees finding it more difficult to ‘switch off’ and achieve a healthy work/life balance.

But the convenience of emails, instant messaging, and other communication tools has made it easy to burden others with our workloads at any given time. What’s alarming is the prevailing notion that this is acceptable, often without any thought of the ramifications. 

Despite this, the UK could be joining 17 countries that have already introduced similar laws. France legally established its ‘right to disconnect’ in 2017, where companies now have a legal obligation to regulate the use of out-of-office emails and other forms of communication. Spain, Ireland, and Belgium likewise can now impose sanctions on employers that breach this regulation. 

As far back as 2012, Volkswagen recognised the potential harm of after-hours emails and took action. They put a block on their company’s Blackberry servers from sending emails or messages 30 minutes after employees’ shifts ended, and resumed them 30 minutes before the next shift began. Though this policy was specific to certain German employees under union-negotiated contracts, it marked a crucial first step towards healthier work-life boundaries. 

Previous calls for a UK ban have fallen on deaf ears, until now. 

The Labour Government has inherited a working population suffering from burnout, with a record 2.8 million workers currently off sick with a long-term illness. According to reports, tens of thousands of people are calling in sick due to mental health illnesses. 

More than nine in ten (91%) adults say they experience either high or extreme levels of pressure at work, while one in five say they need to take time off as a result of mental health problems, according to Mental Health UK’s 2024 Burnout Report.

The techno-stress caused by receiving out-of-office emails is self-evidently another stressor workers have to put up with currently.

It is unsurprising that we’re also seeing a rise in the number of adults turning to addiction in the UK to cope with this stress, particularly with more modern behavioural addictions like social media, shopping, and gambling, which is tougher to spot in someone than alcohol or drug addiction.

The addictive use of smartphones, where you can access your work emails all the time and anytime, is what is causing real trauma. Before smartphones, out-of-hours emails were not causing this much trouble because you could simply log off your computer and go home. 

A clear and agreed separation between work and home life. It is too easy to check work emails and this actively interferes with your family life. This is what is the root cause of techno-stress.

No doubt, Labour will say this policy will help make a dent in this issue.

However, while well-intentioned, I don’t think the Government should introduce the new law.

I support workers creating more and clearer boundaries between work and home life, but it should not be in the form of Labour’s proposed ban. Not only will this not address the 24/7 office culture we currently have, it will also inhibit flexible working which has been a net positive for both employees and employers.

For example, you may want to go home early and pick up your child from school then start working again. You should be able to do that but under the right to disconnect law it’s got to be during working hours.

Instead, it needs to be the actions of line managers, with proper guidance and mandates from HR leaders, that will be the solution to our email epidemic. This is because I believe that line managers are partially responsible for the situation we are in right now.

Throughout my career, I have found that a sizable minority of managers in developed countries have great technical skills and have been elevated to a people management position for this reason. However, these managers tend to lack emotional intelligence and the people skills required to meaningfully address techno-stress.

HR leaders need to support line managers dealing with techno-stress. Here are some tips they can action right away:

1. Make sure your managers receive the right training- thousands progress into managerial roles without proper social skills and emotional intelligence, but this can be learnt. Invest in these important skills often overlooked and it will pay off in the long run.

2. Rule out the Friday afternoon emails that require actions the following week unless for emergencies – while it may seem harmless, this passes on the stress to the recipient, who will just worry over the weekend. For those who can’t hold off, schedule your emails to land Monday mid-morning.

3. Set strong guidance against internal emails on occasions where you can speak to your colleague in-person – this is better from a performance and health perspective.

4. Limit the use of WhatsApp and Slack – it feeds into a culture of needing an immediate response which has negatively impacting email behaviour. These should instead be used in exceptional circumstances.

5. HR leaders… lead from the front – set time limitations and clear agendas for meetings, or avoid emailing someone who is out of office.