How to use your smartphone in the art of disconnecting

Work-life balance – the Right to Disconnect. Did you know that a few countries within the European Union have looked at addressing the issue of employees working outside of their normal working hours? Central to the Right to Disconnect, it seeks to support employees to refrain from doing work-related “things” using electronic equipment outside of their working hours.

Clearly, technology has allowed us to be able to work longer on our electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptops. Haven’t we all said, “I’m just sending a quick email”? “It’s just a quick call, saves me doing it tomorrow”?

There are concerns that the ability to LOG ON, at any time to do a quick call to action, or to look over a PDF or an email outside of work, might be having an impact on our work-life balance, reducing our personal time with our self, or loved ones.

Not all of the EU member states have taken the Right to Disconnect on board, but it does seem to be gathering momentum. Since 2017, France has been a stalwart to the right: companies with more than 50 employees, have mandated that the employees are allowed to ignore their work smartphone after working hours. A similar practice is followed in Belgium, a law was passed in 2022, where government workers are allowed to disconnect from work emails and calls after office hours.

So, here’s what you can do: both Apple and Android smartphones have a similar product where you can have your personal and a separate business profile. This is generally considered best practice in the workplace (every business will have its own policies) in how to keep the two worlds separated.

Here’s what that looks like: go into your business profile and you can pause your work apps. So, come 5:00 / 5:30 pm, any work-related stuff will stop being sent to you. Thereby giving you that time to disconnect from your business life. OneDrive, Teams, emails, and phone calls, will stop and then restart at whatever time you have scheduled your business profile to stop or open. You can, of course, override it and adjust the times/dates that your profile allows work through.

You can perform a similar action within your Outlook profile, you can change your schedule notifications, choose your working hours or choose your quiet time. Is it a good thing? Essentially yes, using your work computer or mobile phone for everything, it can feel a little like you’re switched on all the time. It’s a good idea to get a break and disconnect from all the electronic devices that are around us from time to time.

Most importantly, remember if you have to have a work-managed device, don’t be concerned that your employers can see any of your personal stuff on your mobile. They can’t because the two worlds are absolutely separate.

Be aware, that prioritising self-care and setting boundaries between your personal life and work is important. Disconnecting allows you to recharge and maintain overall well-being.