“No” is a powerful word, and in 2024 workers got to say it to their boss.

Under “right to disconnect” laws, employees won the right to “reasonably” refuse contact outside their working hours — including calls and emails.

“I think we’ve seen, by and large, businesses and employees alike really embrace this right to disconnect,” says Gabrielle Golding, who researches the working lives of Australians.

“There’s certainly a real shift in our Zeitgeist, if you like, a shift in the way in which we approach employees,” she says.

And those conversations will continue.

It is almost six months since the laws passed and in August 2025, they will extend to the employees of small businesses, meaning millions more workers will have the right to disconnect.

Loosening the ‘digital leash’ of phones and laptops

The laws came about in response to growing disquiet about the leaching of employer contact and expectations into unpaid “non-work” hours.

Countries like France and organisations including the Victoria Police had already enacted policies to prevent the so-called “digital leash” of technology and the compulsion to answer calls, texts and emails out of hours.

Has it worked?

Dr Betty Frino is not sure.

“It’s a hard one to read at the moment, and that’s because it is a little early days,” she says.

A senior lecturer in human resources at the Australian Catholic University, Dr Frino has seen many attempts to change Australian work culture and says people simply need a break.

“Because we’re seeing now this constant need to be connected, to reply to something immediately — that ‘instancy’ of conversation — or the matter has to be resolved or has to be dealt with,” she says.

Performing extra unpaid hours of work is common in Australia and many jobs come with an expectation of being contactable beyond paid or rostered hours.

The legislation from the federal government aimed to create limits around this work culture but it does not mean the boss can not contact you.

What it does mean is you might not have to answer.

As concrete law, Dr Frino says, it does change things.

‘An allowance, a permission … to be able to take the time that I need’

Therapy requires people to ask hard questions of themselves to help solve deep-seated problems.

At Adelaide business AkindaCo, the staff have been doing the same thing with each other.

Senior psychotherapist Rana Kökçinar says she understands the problem.

“You go to bed and your mind’s going and it’s just really hard to switch off when it’s something that you really care about,” she says.

The solution has been team discussions and reinforcing expectations that have given her colleagues an “allowance, a permission” to take the time they need to live their lives outside of work.

With many clients arriving at the clinic to discuss work-related stress, the period ahead of the right to disconnect commencing in August was a good time to talk about the sustainability of how the team was working.

“The [right] meant that we could begin those conversations with a real structure,” she says.

“We all have lives outside of work that we really value and that are so important in sustaining us in the work that we do.

“We need that support. We need that time off, and I think it’s just enhanced that culture of care and of respect for people’s time.”

Rana’s boss, Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham, says it’s taken time to change.

Recently, she and Rana were in an email conversation at a time when they were meant to be off the clock.

“And so I said, ‘Hey, I’m not meant to be at work. This is not a working day for me and isn’t for you. So let’s just stop straight away and let’s push this back into the time slot that is meant to belong in,'” she recalls.

“But it does take a few of those occasions before we’re routinely doing it.”

At the beginning of her working life, Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham could not take work home with her, except in her head.

Since the right to disconnect commenced, her non-working hours have felt more like those of her early career.

“It feels quite natural to work in this way and to have these boundaries in place,” she explains.

Has it changed things? That is hard to read

It is difficult to assess the impact of the right to disconnect change for two reasons: it is relatively new and there have not been any public disputes about it.

The legislation is thin and does not set out specific guidelines of what is “reasonable” or “unreasonable”, but states that if there is a dispute, it has to be first dealt with “at the workplace level by discussions” between workers and bosses.

That is exactly what has happened.

Our industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission, was set to adjudicate “test” cases which would then create guidelines and precedent for all businesses and workers.

But no-one has yet brought a case.

“I think the really surprising and perhaps heartwarming thing is that we’ve seen that embracing [of the right] happening without the flood of claims that were expected,” says Dr Gabrielle Golding.

Without those prescriptive “yes or no” rulings, companies and workers are relying on broad guidelines.

“Some employers have thought that they’re just not allowed to reach out or contact their employees. That’s actually not the case,” says Dr Betty Frino.

With the introduction of the right, potentially what we are seeing, Dr Frino says, is employers being cautious: “Thinking twice about making those contacts or text messages or emails.”

Some ‘teething challenges’ but movement overall, companies say

As the local boss of workplace management software company Rippling, Matt Loop works with companies that range from tiny start-ups to those with more than 3,000 employees.

He says the long, public discussions ahead of the right being adopted meant businesses were largely aware and ready.

Initially, those changes occurred through necessity. Then, with the passing of time, elements like a shortage of workers pushed businesses to change their view of what was previously “normal” practice.

“But the right to disconnect is really the first policy coming into action, rather than just leaving it up to employers to determine how they wanted to go about it,” Matt Loop says.

“There’s actually a law in place which we all need to abide by. So I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

The company ran research into how customers were dealing with the introduction of the right.

• 65 per cent of Australian employers were “bullish” (confident) on the prospects of right to disconnect
• 23 per cent of employers were struggling to maintain productivity in roles where they were required to have flexibility and work outside of contracted hours
• Only 20 per cent had actually started to take action or measures to ensure it was going to be implemented

The lack of clear guidelines — because there have not been any legal cases about the right — might be playing in to low rates of action.

“Work/life balance is on the mind of all Australian employees, and maintaining productivity is on the mind of all Australian employers,” Matt Loop says, in summary.

There are more than 2.5 million businesses in Australia with fewer than 15 employees and from August, those staff are covered by the laws.

As the date gets closer, expect robust discussions about how it is going to be managed.

During work hours, of course.