People are opening their laptops for work first thing in the morning, even before they freshen up for the day, sometimes without even getting out of bed. The pressure to work, deliver, check constant emails, WhatsApp/Slack/Messenger notifications is real and fearsome.
The Office for National Statistics has found that 35.9% of the UK's employed population did at least some of their work from home last year. This group - while saving time on commuting - did an average of six hours' unpaid overtime each week, it adds.
Interestingly, the right to disconnect has been law for four years in France, where companies are asked to set agreed "specific hours" for "teleworkers". Ireland also brought in a code of practice last month, under which employers should add "footers and pop-up messages to remind employees... that there is no requirement to reply to emails out of hours".
Prospect, whose members include managers, civil servants, engineers and scientists, wants the UK government to set out similar protections in its Employment Bill, expected to be published later this year.
The official advice across the UK currently is for people to work at home wherever possible. To preserve wellbeing, the Mental Health Foundation recommends that bosses stay in daily contact with employees. However, it says they must "respect the boundaries people have between work and home life".
While calls have been made and online forums are buzzing with the atrocious after-work hours pressure to reply to emails, have we lost our work-life balance in the pandemic? Probably, yes.
