Two ubiquitous devices, namely cellphone and laptop, owing their invention to the relatively modern discipline of electronic engineering are bestowed attention in this column in a restricted context of a Private Member’s Bill in the Nation’s Parliament sometime ago proposing to free employees from the tyranny of work-related e-mails and phone calls after working hours and also on holidays. The most uncommon sight in the land nowadays is to see a citizen (virtually in all age-groups) without a cellphone, most of the time stuck to the ear. The other device, laptop, appears to be keeping august company with the first one. The Right to Disconnect Bill, which also includes the proposal to set up an Employees’ Welfare Authority giving employees the right to disconnect from the telephone calls and e-mails outside of work hours without fear or reprisal.
The boss, who calls the shots in the matter of assigning work, spelling out both the tasks to be done and the time-frame for completion, is perceived as unsympathetic by those in lower hierarchy if the workload exceeds the time as stipulated and, therefore, necessitates stay at workplace beyond working hours.
