Portugal’s ‘right to rest’ law bans bosses from contacting employees after hours

The law also requires companies with remote workers to provide additional financial support

Today's expression: Stick to
Explore more: Lesson #421
December 2, 2021:

Portugal’s parliament passed a new law that gives employees a “right to rest.” In practice, this means that bosses are no longer legally permitted to text or email their employees outside of working hours. The law also requires additional financial assistance for remote workers. Sounds great, right? Well, not so fast… Plus, learn “stick to.”

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Are we all moving to Lisbon? Portugal tells bosses: it’s illegal to contact employees after hours

Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 421. JR is the producer, and he has uploaded this full lesson to PlainEnglish.com/421.

Coming up today… the sweet sound of silence after five o’clock. That’s the sound of your boss not texting or emailing you after your workday is done. And that sweet sound of silence will soon be your right if you’re a remote worker in Portugal. But I am here to argue that this is not a good idea—listen on for why I think so.

In the second half of today’s lesson, I’ll show you how to use the English phrasal verb, “stick to.” And JR has selected a song of the week by Sir Elton John. Let’s get going.

Portugal implements a ‘right to rest’

Portugal’s parliament passed a new law that establishes a “right to rest.” And under this new “right,” bosses are not permitted to text or e-mail their staff outside of working hours. Plus, companies with remote workers will soon be required to contribute financially to a portion of household expenses. And to combat the loneliness of remote work, employers will be required to organize occasional in-person gatherings. The law even requires that new parents be allowed to work at home until their child is eight years old.

This new law would not apply to the many “digital nomads” that have made Portugal home over the years; many of them are their own bosses, are independent contractors, or work for foreign businesses.

Still, for the many remote employees of Portuguese companies, it sounds like a good deal. Sign off at 5:00, pour yourself a glass of Vinho Verde wine, and snack on some bacalhou safe in the knowledge that you’ve left your work behind for the evening. But I’m not so sure this is a good idea, either for employers or for the remote workers themselves.

At first, the new law sounds fair. Can’t we all just agree on certain working times and stick to them? After all , we managed to have a fairly clear work-life division for many, many years before the advent of electronic devices. I would like to think that we can, in most cases, respect these boundaries. But the law doesn’t say “in most cases.” Employers can face fines for contacting employees outside of working hours.

You might have noticed that I am both an employee of a large organization and the owner of a small business. I have thought about this new law as both an employee and a business owner, and I disagree with it from both perspectives.

As an employee, for example, I admit that I would like to generally be free of the obligation to check work e-mails and respond to messages after hours. However, I also take pride in my work, and I want to do a good job.

At my job, I’m not evaluated on the number of hours I put in; I’m evaluated on my results. And I work on projects with people around the world, including in Asia. There are times when someone in Asia has a question for me at about 10 or 11 p.m. in Chicago. I can answer the question in just a few minutes, and that answer enables my colleague in Asia to have a full and productive workday. Should it be illegal for someone at work to reach out to me at 10 p.m. in that situation? I realize not everyone would want that, but I also don’t think that situation should be against the law.

What’s more, I also enjoy a certain freedom of schedule in my job. I can manage my schedule so that I can sneak out to do some errands in the afternoon and finish my work in the evening if I can manage it. Employers may be less likely to permit that if they are limited in the number of hours that they can contact me. For example, if my employer can only contact me for eight hours a day, you can bet they’ll want me sitting at my desk for every minute of those eight hours.

I also thought about this question from the perspective of a business owner. I should state upfront that Portugal’s new law applies only to companies with ten or more employees. My business has no employees; all the team members are contractors. However, a ten-person business is not a large business, so I think the logic still applies.

I run a website that people access all over the world. PlainEnglish.com receives thousands of hits a day from people in every continent on the globe. A percentage of those people also pay a monthly subscription fee for enhanced content like video lessons, exercises, translations, and bonus audio.

If there’s a problem, I want to address it right away. I wouldn’t bother a team member after hours for something small, but I would want a team that’s responsive on important issues, even if it’s outside their working hours.

I’d be clear about this before hiring the individual and I’d work with that person to find the right balance. Still, my website is available 24 hours a day; there could be problems at any hour. I’d want a team that can be flexible in their working hours, at least to address any big problems that may arise.

Portugal says this law will make it an attractive destination for remote workers. But I think this will backfire and put Portuguese companies at a competitive disadvantage compared to other European companies.

However, this law should put big employers the world over on notice: employees are feeling burned out from the increasingly blurry boundaries between work and home life, especially when work and home are the same physical place. And if large companies can’t help employees strike a balance between work and life, then governments are going to step in and clarify the boundary for them.

Same bother crammed into less time

I don’t want to sound like an advocate for a 24-hour workday or an always-on attitude. A lot of the emails that I’ve sent and received after working hours are pointless and could have been saved for a 15-minute conversation in the morning.

But a law prohibiting contact after working hours doesn’t allow for a reasonable compromise. I have a feeling this is going to wind up being a bad deal for employees. Employers are only going to bother you more during your eight hours if they know they can’t bother you later in the day.

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Expression: Stick to