Right to disconnect gains ground as pandemic brings work home

Research in several countries has shown the pandemic-induced shift to remote working has resulted in longer working hours for millions of people, fanning a long-standing debate on the need to grant employees a right to disconnect. — dpa

A few weeks into Italy’s first coronavirus lockdown in March last year, Andrea Pestarino started setting a 5.30pm alarm as a reminder it was time to turn off his laptop and go play football with his kids in the garden.

The 42-year-old innovation manager said the trick helped him strike a better work-life balance after his engineering firm’s sudden move to remote work pushed him to spend longer hours glued to the computer screen.