never been so difficult disconnect in summer. The growing incorporation of digital and mobile devices into the work dynamics, the pandemic and the new work models have drawn a reality that, for many, is hard to escape.
Fernando, international trader of raw materials for a multinational, is clear about it, in the current situation “the horizon of the working day blurs“. He recognizes that his position allows him to work wherever he wants and with a certain flexibility. That flexibility has meant, however, an average connection of one hour a day during his last vacation period.
On the other hand, Fernando sees obvious advantages, such as efficiency, in the incorporation of these technological devices, although they end up affecting the duration and intensity of the day. This intensification occurs, above all, in communications within the work environment: “The answers are in seconds, we have become accustomed to immediacy“.
A guided use of these devices and their applications is necessary, but it is not always the norm. For this reason, facing our vacations, the psychologist Mónica Ortiz challenge adleave our electronic devices at home so they can’t spoil that walk on the beach or that family meal. Although we can start little by little, establishing firewalls based on some tricks such as using the option, when available, to program the phone to turn off and on, since “if the phone does not turn off, it is quite difficult to achieve that disconnection“.
This is explained in our own automatisms, which in many cases lead us to attend to the notifications received almost instinctively. There is also a culture of overworkwhich remains as alive as ever. Our society still glorifies devotion to work, and therefore overwork, as a positive quality.
According to a report published by the UGT Studies Service on March 8 from the Active Population Survey (EPA), the average number of weekly overtime hours worked by men amounted to 3.5 million in 2020; For their part, women recorded a weekly average of 2.5 million overtime hours. The latest data from the EPA, relating to the second quarter of 2022, also show that almost half of the overtime hours are not paid in Spain.
From his experience, Fernando believes that this investment of time and attention that the worker makes outside working hours is sometimes voluntary: “It sounds bad but… every addiction is an escape, which is sometimes used to give meaning to our weather”.
In this regard, the psychologist Estefanía López stresses the importance of “moving away from the prevailing model of productivity above all else”. To do this, a stop is necessary, which can be done taking advantage of the holiday period. “It is important to recover our right to slow down, to get away from our agendas, our emails, from excess organization. It is essential to get up without a pre-established plan, improvise and enjoy that lack of closed organization. Move away from the model that prevails throughout our year of productivity above all else.”
The price of not disconnecting
Psychologist Mónica Ortiz warns that accumulated stress can cause long-term disorders. At the emotional level, some decompensation can be generated that derive in depression. The integration of these devices in our lives contributes to that overload. Mónica Ortiz has already had patients who have come to her due to her inability to disconnect from work, aggravated by the use of mobile devices.
This inability to disconnect may have negative consequences in other spheres of personal lifeas is the case of the couple relationship and paternal-maternal-filial relationships.
It even negatively affects the way in which the individual behaves in society. “The problem is that, in society, we tend to normalize these sensations a lot and perhaps we are not aware of their damage to health,” he says.
‘Burn-out’
In 2019, the World Health Organization includes burn-out syndrome in its International Classification of Diseases. This nomenclature is used to refer to the physical and mental exhaustion of the worker. The WHO itself underlines the reduction in labor efficiency as one of its three main characteristics. It seems that the efficiency of the worker is as urgent or relevant as his own health.
Ironically, a large part of the alerts that are generated around this mental, emotional and human exhaustion derive from the fear on the part of the corporations of the loss of productivity of the worker. As if the investment in their health is not justified by itself but rather in terms of productivity and image. Mónica Ortiz denounces this search for greater performance by many companies, which is masked behind an investment in the health of the worker.
There is a kind of realist mentality that understands the need to give an inducement corporations to stop burning out their workers. The fact that we need such an inducement is probably part of the problem.
Today, fortunately, workers in this kind of predicament can turn to mindfulness, or, as professor and author Ronald Purser calls it, “the new capitalist spirituality“. They can also benefit from current legislation.
Regulation
Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on the Protection of Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights, mentions for the first time, in reference to the use of devices in the workplace, the right to digital disconnect. This disconnection occurs when, outside of working hours, the worker stops using all kinds of digital devices or corporate software.
Despite the regulation, the digital disconnect seems to be getting further away, and not closer. Law 10/2021, of July 9, on teleworking or remote work, which, in its article 18, deepens the right to digital disconnection, warns in its explanatory memorandum that the boom in remote work is leading into a whole new problem: techno-stress, continuous hours, computer fatigue and permanent digital connectivity.