An increasingly common email signature used by bosses is leaving employees furious as they feel pressured to work out of hours.
Communications and human skills specialist and author Leah Mether said since the new right to disconnect legislation was introduced in Australia, bosses have started using the signature to cover themselves.
The message ‘I choose to work flexibly, but please don’t feel like you have to respond until your working hours’ means bosses can get away with contacting their employees outside of office hours.
“Leaders will say to me, ‘Well, I’m doing my part, Leah,’ but you have to be aware of those power dynamics,” Ms. Mether said.
‘You can see that person is trying to make a good impression: they’re new, they’re young.
‘They want to impress you. They may still respond.’
In Australia, workers won the right disconnect from late August this year.
According to the Fair Work Committeeemployees can “refuse to monitor, read, or respond to contact or contact attempts from their employer or any other person if the contact or contact attempt is work-related.”
Ms Mether (pictured) said employees can be “smart and strategic” about talking about their boundaries
Ms Mether said many bosses now put this signature on their emails (pictured)
For staff, receiving the signature message is also a guessing game, wondering whether bosses really mean it because they send emails after hours, Ms. Mether said.
“As a leader, you have to be very conscious of modeling the behavior you ask of your team,” she said.
“I say the right things, but I’m the leader and I never leave on time (or early) if they don’t see you prioritizing your life without work, actions speak louder than words.”
Ms Mether said employees are more likely to believe a leader’s behavior than what they say, and companies need to be aware of the extra pressure this can put on staff.
“It makes it harder for people to maintain their own boundaries because they feel like they’re out of step with the cultural norms of that team,” she said.
The communications and people skills specialist said that even if leaders assured staff they don’t need to respond overnight, they should actually stop sending emails in the first place.
“If you choose to work nights because that works for you, you should schedule emails to appear within people’s work hours,” she said.
“There’s no excuse not to do that today; it’s so easy to do. Find out how.’
Ms Mether also warned bosses and workers that the new legislation granting the right to disconnect will not work unless they take action and discuss what it means for them.
“We need to discuss how and when we communicate with each other,” she said.
‘What is okay and what is not okay. Every industry and role is different as there are some roles that require us to be available outside of standard hours.”
Ms Mether said for these roles it could be a matter of asking to receive a text message outside of business hours rather than email, so an employee doesn’t have to constantly check their phone.
For employees who are concerned about not being heard, Ms. Mether said they should raise this in a “smart and strategic” way rather than presenting it as “this is my boundary and you need to respect it.” ‘
Ms Mether also said employees should have a conversation with their boss about how and when they can be contacted – and if this is part of their role, they can suggest which method of communication is best for them.
“Present it in a way where you’re essentially looking for the win-win situation with your leader,” she said
“Say, ‘I want to make sure I’m doing my best work for you, and to do my best work, I need to shut down and recharge so I can give 100 percent at work.’
“You also present your boundaries in a way that shows the leader that this is also in their best interest. This is what the smart communicators do.”
Ms Mether said there is talk of retraining for bosses and workers aged 40 and over because in the past longer hours meant someone was working hard.
“A lot of older workers — we’ve gotten out of the hustle culture,” she said.
‘The way we are trained is not the way we perform optimally.
“All the research shows that at some point employees become truly unproductive.”