The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1455045
www.canadianlawyermag.com 23 As boundaries blur, a new Ontario law aspires to help workers keep their work-life balance, writes Zena Olijnyk Plugging into the 'right to disconnect' THE COVID-19 world we now live in has shown employers and employees the advan- tages and challenges of working remotely. Employees have embraced the increased flex- ibility of working from home, and the bene- fits of not spending time going back and forth to work. And employers have recognized that while, in general, they preferred having their staff at the office, employees like the "virtual office" that the pandemic created and now want at least a hybrid workplace model. The move toward a hybrid approach of part-remote, part-office working has even allowed employers to downsize their offices to save money, using a "hotelling" system for desk availability when employees do come into the office. The challenges? After the logistical issues of setting up home offices, perhaps the biggest one is the blurring of work life and personal time — that feeling that we can never truly disconnect from work. Many of us feel like we're always on the job, finding our way after dinner back to the spare bedroom, now a home office, to sit at the computer dealing with work-related tasks. Getting emails or calls after work seems to have increased — and there can be a greater feeling of pressure to deal with issues immediately instead of putting them LEGAL REPORT LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT