Dropbox unveil Unplugged PTO employee scheme

By Laura Ryan, Director of International HR, Dropbox.

Across Ireland, knowledge workers have been adjusting the new normal that is distributed work. But what was once deemed as a perk, a day per week to save on commuting, or a means of finding some focus away from the office, working from home in the current situation feels very different?

Our new reality requires a careful and disciplined approach if we are to protect the mental health and wellbeing of our employees. Now more than ever, it’s time for companies to “walk the walk” when it comes to enabling employee wellbeing.

Dropbox- Caring for employee wellbeing

At Dropbox, we’ve always valued our employees’ wellbeing, but after the initial shock that came along with COVID, we saw this as an opportunity to listen even more closely to the challenges and successes that our people are experiencing during this time, to test new initiatives, and iterate on what’s working and what’s not.

That’s why we’ve recently rolled out a new programme called Unplugged PTO (Paid Time Off), an opt-in initiative that pauses an employee’s corporate access to their mobile while on annual leave.

Dropbox employees: The risk of exhaustion is real

Today, remote working faces new pressures that are further exacerbated by the uncertain time frame that stretches ahead and the demands of balancing this new way of working with personal responsibilities, such as childcare and eldercare.

Meanwhile, the digital tools we previously found useful have become essential lifelines. We’re more reliant on tech than ever, in both our personal and professional lives.

Our days have become inundated with pings and notifications. We are constantly switching between apps and responding to virtual requests; for many, the pressure to appear “online” is exhausting.

Conflicting applications and responsibilities stretch our focus in different directions, fuelling an “always-on” culture in which we are always reachable, irrespective of timezone or preferred working schedule.

On top of this, personal travel looks very different this year, with “air bridges” closing by the day and new quarantine restrictions on the rise. Even closer to home, the Irish Hotel Federation’s figures on occupancy rates in August have shown them to be running at less than 30 per cent, with the figures for September looking even lower.

Many are now looking to staycations as their only chance at a break in 2020. But when employees are restricted to “home holidays” in the same place where they’ve been working, parenting, and isolating, how can we help ensure employees switch off and take a real break?

Dropbox- Greater control to switch off

Now more than ever, leaders must enable their employees to fully switch off and recharge when it comes to taking time out.

That’s why, as part of an annual Hack Week at Dropbox, a week when we encourage employees to take a week away from their day jobs to innovate on new ideas, we used technology to tame technology, and give the power to switch off back to employees via a new, opt-in initiative that pauses an employee’s corporate access to their mobile while on annual leave.

Now integrated into our HR management platform Workday, we are enabling and encouraging our employees across Ireland, the UK, France, and Germany, to pause access to work email on their mobile phones, as well as switch off notifications.

We’re taking a big step by giving our employees greater control – and a better chance at mentally disconnecting – by ensuring that work is no longer “in the pockets” of our people when they need to recharge the most.

To make things simpler, our integration also means that when Workday indicates an employee is back from PTO, access will be automatically restored for a seamless transition back.

But new initiatives like this will only become the norm if managers and organisations fully embrace and enable a truly switched off holiday.

Clearing the digital clutter is the first step, but managers also need to lead by example, and take visible steps themselves.

Culturally, we need to normalise and encourage disconnected time away by discouraging employees from promising “I’ll be out but I’ll still be available”.

The “I’m so busy I couldn’t even take some time off” mantra also needs to be challenged, outdated as a corporate “badge of honour” and frowned upon by leadership to drive behavioural change.

Time out of office needs to be thoughtfully planned by teams, so that there’s a clear and suitable shift in responsibility that doesn’t require routing back to the employee on leave.

Handover plans should be prepared and run through in real-time so that both sides walk away feeling confident that everything is in order.

But, most importantly, leaders must be seen to model this behaviour if others are to feel truly free to step away as well. Only then will we see healthier approaches to work-life balance stick.

I’m really passionate about helping our teams to fully disconnect over their summer vacations and beyond, and I want to encourage businesses and leaders everywhere to look more closely at their company policies.

While we’re all learning how to harness workplace technology for productivity, connection, and collaboration in this new normal, let’s not forget that sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for our employees is to turn it off.

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