Putting employees on a digital leash

As a trend, employees are exploited and treated unfairly in the country, and are considered personal assets of employers. They are often treated as slaves or robots at the beck and call of their masters. It is a common practice in our part of the world that employees are contacted even after office hours and called back for some ‘missing’ information.
They are tethered through digital communication even on weekends, holidays and vacations, without the slightest consideration for their mental and physical health. Clearly, such intrusions by the employers disrupt the employees’ work-life balance.
It is becoming illegal now in many countries to contact employees after office hours, with the exception of some actual and tangible emergency. According to the United States Department of Labour, a work emergency is an unforeseen situation that threatens employees, customers or the public; disrupts or shuts down operations; or causes physical or environmental damage.
But here, sadist employers with their colonial mindset deliberately keep their employees on the digital leash after office hours, on weekends and even during vacations.
France, Germany and Portugal have formed laws barring businesses and offices from contacting employees after work hours. The freedom to disconnect with office after work hours has been acknowledged as employees’ fundamental right. The employers who dare trespass personal boundaries of the employees stand to incur fines as per the laws enacted in those countries. In Germany, it is strictly prohibited to dismiss employees if they fail to take phone calls after work hours.
In countries like ours where the colonial past is still present, employers or bosses under the hubris of officialdom, or with superhuman powers vested by departmental hierarchy, behave like the Orwellian Big Brother, running their offices as their ‘nanny states’. Just because they can.
They forget the simple fact that employees under undue pressure and in a threatening atmosphere always underperform. They must pay heed to what John Stuart Mill said: “A state which dwarfs its men in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands, even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a part of the US Department of Labour, in its Section 15, enjoins upon employers to safeguard the safety, health and welfare of their employees. Its guidelines say: “Health is a state of total physical, mental and social wellbeing, not only the absence of disease.” It also defines ‘stress’ as something when the demands on employees exceed their capacity to cope with their responsibilities. The calls from office after duty hours and unexpected assignments disturb the work-life balance of employees who then get taut nerves, further depleting their energy, and they end up feeling burnt-out.
Various critical studies on the dynamics of corporate system indicate that assigning input and demanding output from employees after office hours exposes the lack of planning and seriousness on the part of the management and administration sections of business firms. It is to cover up one’s own absence of commitment to the goals and targets of the company.
Making inroads into employees’ life beyond office hours always proves counterproductive for business enterprises. Human resource professionals to keep that in mind.
M NADEEM NADIR
KASUR