Ever been out with mates after work when your manager’s number flashes up on your phone screen?

Over the next two days, your downtime isn’t legally protected…but starting Monday, you can politely ignore your manager if they contact you after hours.

It’s thanks to new ‘right to disconnect’ laws, which come into effect on Monday.

To understand the scale of the issue, and where a need for this law came from, I wanted to hear from you. It turns out the TDA audience has had more than its fair share of work calls during big life moments – even while giving birth. Yep.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll take a closer look at the legislation, and what you told us about being contacted outside of work hours.

Earlier this year, the Government passed laws to protect your right to switch off from work.

Starting Monday, you have the legal power to “refuse to monitor, read, or respond to” work-related contact outside working hours.

So, your boss – or a coworker who needs a login on the weekend – can still call and text you outside your regular hours. But the new laws mean you can’t get in trouble for ignoring them.

What happens if you feel like ignoring an email five hours after clock-off will get you in trouble, or hold you back at work?

Enter: The Fair Work Commission (FWC) – Australia’s workplace tribunal.

The FWC can help resolve workplace disputes arising from the ‘right to disconnect’, whichever way it flows.

It can order an employee to stop refusing to monitor work-related contact, as long as it’s reasonable. Or, it can ask an employer to stop expecting their workers to make themselves available outside work.

A new digital age of smartphones and ever-intrusive tech makes employees, in theory, contactable 24/7. “Availability creep” is how a Senate report termed it.

So, how does one stop the ‘creep’?

Unions agitated for a right to a “healthy separation between home and work life”, while some business groups warned against saddling bosses with extra burdens that could otherwise be entrusted to their staff.

Four in five full-time workers have worked outside scheduled hours. Data crunchers at the Australia Institute estimate the average employee works 280 hours of unpaid overtime.

We posted a poll on TDA’s Instagram stories earlier this week. Nearly 7,500 of you responded (thank you!).

More than one in two of you said you do get contacted by your boss outside work hours.

How often is it happening though?

Well, 3,305 (44%) said you are ‘sometimes’ contacted. 1,193 (16%) said it’s a weekly occurrence, and 449 (6%) said it happens daily.

Workers across a range of industries, but especially nurses, teachers and hospitality staff, shared tales of getting woken up by work calls, receiving barrages of texts when they were trying to sleep, and weekends disrupted by “urgent” emails.

One nurse forwarded a screenshot of a message he had received from a senior staff member at 11.50pm: “Hey man, are you available for an AM [shift] tomorrow? I’ll call you at 6am in case you are asleep now”.

Here are a handful of the other experiences you shared with us:

Eleni: [I was] told to join a call… while I was at my birthday dinner.

Harrison: On a Saturday night…my boss will use facebook, insta, or call.

Sarah: Got contacted the day before my mother died to ask when I’d be coming back to work.

Rachel: Partner at law firm tried to contact me on my wedding day.

Laura: In early labour and she called me to ask if I marked exams for a class that wasn’t mine.

Before we start thinking of all bosses as workaholic villains*, there were many of you who told us that you work with a respectful boss, and that you only hear from them after hours for big updates or to cover a shift.

One respondent, Susan, said her boss only contacted them to make sure they were “feeling better and to take my time to look after myself whilst off sick!”.

Humanity = saved!

*[Special caveat here to say my bosses, TDA co-founders Sam and Zara, are the best. I did not write this against my will.]

Picture this: you’re a café owner, it’s 7pm on a Friday night and one of your waiters calls to tell you they can’t make their shift in the morning. Will you, as a boss, get in trouble for picking up the phone to find someone to replace the shift?

Probably not.

In fact, if you have fewer than 15 staff members – these changes won’t affect you for another year.

Refusing to take a call from your boss is only acceptable if it’s “reasonable”, as prescribed by the new law.

Emergencies, last-minute roster issues, and emails that don’t require an out-of-hours response fall are likely to fall into the realms of ‘reasonable contact’ – which the new Minister for Workplace Relations, Senator Murray Watt told TDA.

Given that, it’s unlikely these reforms will lead to an influx of workers seeking out legal advice because their boss sent out an email on a Sunday.

But your right to live your best life away from work is, well, (almost) the law. So, go live it!

64% of TDA readers currently have a trip planned in the next 12 months. 

If you’re one of them here's a tip that could save you some cash. 

Steer clear of airport currency exchanges—they tend to charge higher rates, meaning you could end up paying a lot more just to get your hands on foreign currency!

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Remember, always withdraw in the local currency, not AUD, to avoid unnecessary fees.

Stay savvy, travel safe, and keep more money in your pocket!

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