When Work Messages Follow You Home

Smartphones solved an old workplace problem: people no longer need to be at their desks to receive an important message. They also created a new problem. If work can reach you anywhere, when does the working day actually end?

The right to disconnect is one response. The International Labour Organization defines it as a worker's right to disengage from work and avoid work-related electronic communication during non-work hours. Different countries have turned that idea into law in different ways. [3]

Eurofound reported in 2026 that 13 EU member states had national right-to-disconnect provisions as of 2025. Belgium, France and Spain apply the right broadly across the private sector, while several other countries limit it to teleworkers. Some rules focus on a worker's right not to respond; others place duties on employers. [1]

Australia provides another model outside Europe. Employees can refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable. The law considers factors such as why the employer made contact, how disruptive it was, the employee's role and whether extra availability is paid. [4]

The issue matters because flexible work does not always mean free time. Eurofound's 2026 analysis found that frequent contact outside working hours has a particularly strong negative relationship with stress, mental strain and work-life balance. [2]

At the same time, a right to disconnect is not necessarily a ban on sending messages. Emergency roles, on-call work and senior responsibilities can create reasonable reasons for contact. The difficult part is setting expectations before an urgent message arrives.

A useful policy may therefore be less about switching every phone off at the same hour and more about making boundaries clear. Workers should know when silence is acceptable, while employers should know when an after-hours request is truly worth interrupting someone's evening.