If you email your team at 11 PM, you aren't showing dedication. You might be exposing your business to a costly constructive dismissal claim. With the UK looking closer at a formal right to disconnect as exists in New Zealand already, HR might get caught in the crossfire.


How do we protect our people from burnout when our executives are self-proclaimed workaholics? Here is my take on breaking the 'always-on' cycle—legally and culturally.


Section 1: The Legal Reality

While the UK watches continental and antipodean frameworks with interest, we already have powerful legislation that many businesses routinely breach:


  • The Working Time Regulations 1998: Setting a maximum 48-hour average working week. Are your opt-out forms actually signed, or just assumed?  It is interesting how many industries have these as routine add-ins to all contracts without considering the need or the implications.  Make sure you also know what do to when someone refuses to sign the waiver.
  • The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974: Employers have a statutory duty to provide a safe working environment. Holiday and regular breaks are enshrined in Health & Safety law but chronic stress and burnout caused by endless digital tethering is a failure of safety and an equal breach of the statutory duty.
  • The Mutual Trust and Confidence Threshold: Flooding an employee’s inbox during their sick leave or parental leave can easily trigger a breach of contract, paving the way for a successful constructive unfair dismissal claim at an employment tribunal.


Section 2: The Evolution of Availability

When I started out in HR 25 years ago, leaving the office meant leaving the work. If a crisis happened after 6 PM, unless someone called your landline, it waited until 9 AM the next morning. Then came the Blackberry, then the smartphone, and suddenly, the office was in our pockets.


I remember a specific turning point in my career when a senior executive told me, 'If they don't reply to my Sunday emails, they clearly aren't invested in their progression.' This was concerning in 2000 but is all the more concerning when businesses are still leading with this expectation in 2026.


People entering the workforce in the last few years are no longer accepting of this contract - they are more confident to stick with their contracted hours regardless of the office expectation.  Lockdown WFH as the norm may be starting to fade, but an organisation can no longer say someone needs to be in the office to be productive, as they did back in 2000.


HR departments need to be on the front foot looking at the changing trends in the workplace and bringing the data and the risks to the attention of the board quickly and clearly.


Section 3: The Culture Challenge

The real issue isn't the technology; it's the cultural reward system.


Middle managers copy the behaviours of the executive team to get promoted.


If the CEO sends Slack messages at 2 AM, the HR Director sends updates at 3 AM, and the Line Manager responds at 6 AM.


This creates a toxic badge of honour where "presence" equals "performance."


HR is left holding the pieces: rising absence rates, mental health dropouts, and sudden, quiet resignations of top talent.


Section 4: What HR can do today

To change this culture without killing business agility, consider these three practical steps:


  • The "Delay Delivery" Mandate
  • The Rule: Implement a company-wide policy: You can work whenever you want, but you cannot impose your hours on others.
  • The Action: Train leaders to use the "Schedule Send" function in Outlook or Google. If they write an email at 10 PM, it must be scheduled to land at 8:30 AM the next day.
  • The "Out-of-Bounds" Messaging Guide
  • Categorise communication channels clearly.
  • Email/Slack: Response expected within working hours.
  • Phone Call: Only for genuine, business-critical emergencies (e.g., a data breach or a physical site safety issue).


The Solution - The "Right to Disconnect" Policy Template


Draft a simple, one-page agreement stating that employees will not be penalised, passed over for promotion, or viewed unfavourably for failing to respond to digital communications outside their contracted hours.


Culture doesn't change because of a policy document. It changes when a senior leader chooses to close their laptop at 5:30 PM and explicitly tells their team to do the same. As HR professionals, we have to coach our leaders to understand that a rested team is a productive, legally compliant team.  And perhaps this change should start with us.


Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash