In July last year, a new set of industrial relations laws came into effect in Australia. These were aimed at protecting the rights and interests of employees and employers. Among other things, the legislation gave employees the “right to disconnect”, or refuse contact about work-related matters outside of their regular working hours. The intention, of course, is to promote work-life balance by limiting the intrusion of work into people’s personal lives.
The right to disconnect has already been afforded to large businesses. Reviews of the measure’s effectiveness have been mixed at best. While recent research has found that overtime decreased last year, another survey found that a vast number of employees still work overtime and field work-related messages out of hours.
For small businesses, the right to disconnect will come into effect in August 2025. But the laws have already sparked discussion – and concern – in small workplaces.
Ilona Charles, CEO of HR consultancy Shilo, sums up the worries from a small-business perspective.
“With small businesses, they’re usually pretty lean in terms of number of employees and resources that they have to get things done,” the HR expert explains. “So, depending on the type of business, there may be times when they need to speak to an employee outside of what might be considered normal working hours. [The right to disconnect] could maybe seriously impact how they do business.”
In reality, however, the right to disconnect doesn’t seem to be doing that a whole lot at larger businesses so far.
“This year, with organisations that I have worked with, it hasn’t been a big deal,” workplace expert Louise Gilbert says.
Louise works with large businesses, to whom the right to disconnect already applies, and she says it hasn’t stopped employees from working outside regular hours.
The first reason for this, she says, is that there isn’t an expectation for them to do so in the first place.
“Employees are not contacted consistently outside of their set work hours,” the workplace expert explains. “That doesn’t mean that they don’t feel like they have to work, however. Based on what I see at the moment, people end up working too much, or having no work-life balance, because they feel like the workload is so high that they need to.”
So employees in large organisations might still be working outside of their set hours, and the right to disconnect certainly isn’t stopping them. Nor has it (so far) led to legal disputes between employers and employees, although it’s still in its early days.
The rise of flexible working
“I focus more on work-life integration rather than work-life balance.”
But perhaps the biggest reason the right to disconnect hasn’t made an impact on people’s working lives is that it reflects a style of work that increasingly doesn’t exist. The legislation presupposes that most people work a set number of hours and then clock off, after which no work is done at all.
In reality, many people don’t work like this anymore – least of all small-business owners. Small-business owners interviewed on their working set-ups overwhelmingly describe flexible work schedules that integrate work and personal life. Many work outside of the 9-5 hours; for example, on weekends and in the evening – both because this schedule suits them and because they feel they have to do it.
“As the owner of the business, I have always felt that my work can crop up at any time, day or night,” says Jeremy Dawes, owner of website designer Jezweb in Newcastle. “We have flexible work-from-home (WFH) arrangements for our team. The office is there for any time and day the people want to go in or maybe have a client meeting. Everyone is set up with a workspace at home.”
Sole-trader Roxy Sinclair says she has made a “conscious decision” to forgo a set schedule.
“I prioritise family and health, slotting work in around that,” says the owner of Sinclair Communications. “Obviously meetings and some tasks need to occur at particular times but any planning, writing or research can be done whenever it suits. Through the day, I oscillate between household tasks, work and exercise…To make up for the lost work hours I will often do a few hours on weekends and my husband has quality time with the kids. Sometimes I get up early and schedule client emails, or write late at night.”
Rowena Morais, founder and managing director of the small marketing agency Digital Confluence, says she doesn’t believe in work-life balance.
“I focus more on work-life integration rather than work-life balance, as the latter can feel like there is a specific ratio to follow,” the entrepreneur says. “I am purposeful about how I allocate my time and recognise that circumstances can shift and new developments may occur, so I try to anticipate these changes and allow room for flexibility.”
In sum, work-life balance as we typically know it just doesn’t work for a lot of small-business owners, whether they are sole traders or manage employees. Many have instead opted for flexible working arrangements – or, as Rowena put it, work-life integration. Their work and personal lives weave into each other, rather than being blocked off.
Balance gives way to flexibility
Does all this flexibility mean that work-life balance is officially over?
“Workplace flexibility means that, if it works for you, you could work any time, any place,” Ilona explains. “Which is very counter to the traditional concept of work-life balance.”
The HR expert doesn’t necessarily think that means we all have to choose between one or the other. She points out that small-business employers in particular have the ability to ask each employee what works for them. For some, this might mean working set hours. For others, flexibility to work whenever and wherever they want might be a better set-up.
Another option that Ilona is seeing more and more is the shortening of prescribed working hours.
“Maybe the standard hours become something more compact, something like 10 to 3, and then you have flexibility around the hours to make up the rest of the eight-hour day, if it’s an eight-hour day,” she describes. “I think it just takes a little bit of thinking through. For small business particularly, I think it’s about conversations.”
Louise tells us something similar.
“There’s such a great opportunity in our current world of work, whether that be small business or other businesses, to redesign who does what and separate work so that we can play to people’s strengths that will support their performance,” she says. “So really, what we need to be looking at is, what are the conversations that take place between leader and team member every day or once a week?”
Neither expert believes small workplaces have to choose between work-life balance or flexibility. Instead, it’s up to the individual workplace to decide what works for them.
How small employers can navigate flexible working
It’s all well and good to say that workplaces can figure out their working arrangements amongst themselves. But how does this work?
With flexible working arrangements increasingly becoming the norm, rather than the exception, we asked small-business owners how they set up their working arrangements.
Fiona Keary runs a small styling business called Style Liberation. Her entire team of stylists works remotely, setting up booking schedules themselves and controlling the days and times they are available to see clients.
“We all work remotely, checking in formally once a week through a team meeting and then through other channels such as Slack and email,” she says.
All employees in Fiona’s business have five-to-seven working days to turn around virtual analysis results for clients, so they have flexibility as to when they complete this within that time frame.
Geoff Ebert’s small business, Your Online Legal Group, is also highly digital – and highly flexible. His team has freedom over when it works, which not only means employees can integrate their work and personal lives, but also they can be more responsive to clients.
“We have several staff who start before 8:30am and love finishing early to enjoy the afternoon or complete life admin, while some staff work into the evening,” he says. “The team liaise amongst themselves on a day-to-day basis to ensure there is staff coverage across the entire working day, particularly in the front-facing role of client liaison.”
Almost every member of Geoff’s team has altered their original hours. The business owner credits this flexibility for a very high retention rate; all of his original staff are still with the business.
Fiona, of Style Liberation, told us her team’s flexible working arrangements are set out in both written and spoken agreements. Geoff’s team works similarly – they negotiate the arrangement via verbal discussion, but formalise it with an email acknowledgement, which is added to the staff member’s personnel file.
“This is to ensure consistency and a record if ever queried in the future,” Geoff says.
Legal professionals from the firm Holding Redlich told us this is the approach they recommend. According to partner Charles Power and associate Fiorella Chiavetta, all WFH arrangements should be documented. This includes setting out the conditions under which employees may work from home and use employer-provided equipment or resources.
Power and Chiavetta added that, to comply with work health and safety laws, employers also should conduct a risk assessment for employees who work from home. Additionally, they should establish clear policies and procedures around flexible working, including around work hours, breaks, and safe work practices.
“If it’s a more structured business…a formal agreement might be more what’s required,” Ilona says. “I think [it can depend on] the level of experience, seniority, qualifications of the people you’re employing.”
The advantage of being a small business is that you’re able to speak to all employees individually to find a work rhythm that works for them, Ilona explains. But on the other hand, if you’re a lean team, this will make a lot of extra work.
“[Small businesses] won’t want lots of different arrangements in place because you do have to administer it,” the HR expert points out. “You have to pay people differently, potentially. It can be a bit of an overhead.”
Flexible working arrangements are often ever-evolving, workplace expert Louise adds, meaning that conversations with employees need to be ongoing.
In the end, everyone we spoke to agreed that it all comes down to how functional your team is – and how much everyone trusts one another. Both Fiona and Geoff say that they have a high level of trust in their teams.
Geoff says: “An employer needs to trust those staff members to complete the work required and alter their own arrangements sometimes to work outside the agreed hours if life obligations pop-up during their usual working day.”
“[Working flexibly] is all about trust,” Louise says. “It’s about open communication, and it’s about building a supportive and understanding working culture and environment.”
Ilona adds that when you allow your employees to set their own schedules and hours, trusting that all the work will get done, this benefits the entire business.
“It builds engagement,” she explains. “Your people are going to be more loyal, which means you don’t lose them at the drop of a hat. So it actually saves money.”
This article originally appeared in Issue 47 of Inside Small Business. Minor alterations have been made to reflect up-to-date research.
