Surface Ripples

Disconnecting

A number of employers have introduced “disconnection” policies, meaning that employees are forbidden to send or answer emails or texts outside office hours.

The idea behind this is that employees should be able to “disconnect” completely from the office and relax during their time off, rather than continually being bombarded by messages.

To an extent, I feel we’ve made a rod for our own backs. The advent of readily available email and messaging technology has naturally meant that everyone can send a long or short message in no time at all.  When I first joined the workforce, we had to type memos on paper and then send them. This could only be done during office hours at the office.  Now we can do it from anywhere, even 40,000 feet above the earth if our aircraft is equipped with Wi-Fi!  

Some fail to appreciate that email and instant messaging are “asynchronous communication”.  This means that an email may not be read immediately at the time it’s received (just like an old-fashioned letter or memo).  By the time a memo had been typed out, signed, dispatched to the recipient, read and responded to, several hours or even days might have elapsed.  This would be especially true if the memo had to get from one office to another miles away.  Many of my colleagues have experienced firsthand those who expect instant responses to emails or instant messages they send.

Small wonder then that “disconnect” policies are making an appearance. What happened to the “old-fashioned concept” of asking oneself, when sending an email to somebody overseas, whether it was even likely that they would read it?  After all it might be 3 am their time - they would be asleep!

As one who has worked for more than half his life overseas, I often find myself explaining to others that it’s pointless to send an email at (say) nine o’clock our time to the UK as it will be 2 am UK time when it’s received.  We’re unlikely to get a response for another seven to eight hours, by which time it will be almost the end of “our” office hours! 

The result?  A game of “email ping-pong” as each side answers during their respective working hours.  

We need to reconnect with the basics of timekeeping and appreciating that, in today’s increasingly connected and globalised markets, we need to once again ask ourselves, “what time is it over there?”

The answer?  “Disconnect policies”.  Mind you, these aren’t only for dealing with messages from the other side of the globe, but also from one’s own market.  The god of “productivity” has far too many worshippers who fail to understand that they aren’t being more productive.

In the same way that going to church, temple, or whatever place of worship one frequents every week doesn’t make one a better adherent to that religion than the person who goes perhaps only on high feast or holy days, trying to fit more into the same space or amount of time doesn’t always make one more productive.  On the contrary, it makes one more importunate and stressed.

Does your organisation have a “disconnect policy”?  What has been the result? Are people more productive?  Have you lost business, have things changed or even improved?  In the words of one of my friends disconnection was 

 “… something I tried for the first time last year and the sky didn’t fall in and saved a LOT of time managing the inbox on the first day back”. Mind you, he works for a reasonably-sized company, rather for himself. 

Perhaps disconnection may not be for everyone?

Labels: Leadership, Leisure, Productivity, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 11:09