The health and wellbeing of our people is of the utmost importance to us, and we encourage and support all colleagues to prioritise their own wellbeing and enjoy their free time away from work without being disturbed unless there is an emergency or agreement to do so.
This guidance sets our our commitment to you and our shared responsibilities to ensure there is a supportive environment, which enables colleagues to disconnect from the workplace. It forms part of our overall approach to new ways of working (NWOW) and staff health and wellbeing.
It is for all SPS colleagues, regardless of whether you’re working at Holyrood or off-site (including working from home).
New technologies are readily accessible to all of us and create a great opportunity for enhanced flexibility in how, when and where we work. We live in a 24-hour, seven day a week culture in which virtually any service can be accessed at any time using these technologies. The routine encroachment on life outside of work can pose risks to mental health and wellbeing. There are associated risks that an “always on” culture can disadvantage people unable to be constantly responsive or available, with consequences for career progression and development opportunities that can have potentially discriminatory effects.
We’re conscious that without appropriate guidance in place this can create risks, expectations, or pressures to work longer hours, or interrupt leisure, rest or personal time and create an “always on” culture. This can result in a growth of hidden or unpaid additional work.
The right to disconnect works to counteract this, encouraging and indeed expecting colleagues to switch off when they are not working.
It means, the:
Your normal working hours are set out in your contract of employment. As colleagues within the SPS work to different schedules, it’s important to note all colleagues have the right to disconnect in the context of their own particular work pattern.
Along with our contracts of employment, our team agreements set the parameters for flexibility in the time, place, and method of working; always ensuring that business needs are met. Team agreements are defined by managers in consultation with their teams and, as such, they should balance the expectations of colleagues with business needs. This can mean that colleagues who work together, both within and across teams, may work at different times. This can create circumstances such as emails being sent to colleagues at times when they are not working or meetings taking place when they are not scheduled to work.
It’s an important role of managers to work with their teams to manage expectations where teams are not routinely working in the same space together or at the same time. Without careful management this can create a sense of expectation that an immediate response will be provided, a meeting will be attended, or a call will be answered. This is not the expectation we have of our staff.
We’re all entitled to switch off outside of our normal working hours / scheduled roster and enjoy our free time away from work without being disturbed. While unforeseen circumstances may arise that require us to be contacted outside of normal working hours, this should be the exception rather than the norm. It’s important to note that this does not refer to the contractual commitments that apply to a small number of staff due to the nature of service delivery, for example, on-call arrangements and emergency callouts.
Our performance management approach sets expectations about the frequency and nature of conversations between managers and staff. Wellbeing is at the heart of this approach and these conversations are the means by which workload pressures and concerns can be raised and addressed. Should you have concerns surrounding your working time or feel that you’re unable to disconnect from work, this should be brought to the attention of your manager for them to be aware and try to agree on a resolution. Further information can be found on our Managing for Excellence intranet pages.
We’re all encouraged to:
And if you’re a manager you should set the following expectations with your team members:
We should all manage the right to disconnect in a manner that is respectful of everyone’s rights and expectations and in the context of good workplace relations generally. It’s recognised that circumstances may occasionally arise that necessitate that communications are sent and received outside of your normal working hours. This may be due to operational needs and other factors including the nature of your role, the agreed terms of employment and the unique requirement of the services you deliver.
When occasional contact outside normal working hours and scheduled rostering arrangements becomes the norm, however, this needs to be addressed either informally or, if necessary, under the Grievance Procedure.
In this regard, situations may arise where you may feel that your:
Examples of such situations might include:
Useful links: