Let's Talk About the "Right to Disconnect"
A Friendly Guide for Small Not-for-Profits
The “right to disconnect” legislation starts August 26, 2025, impacting small businesses, including many not-for-profits. This guide helps you prepare with practical steps: understand the rules, create a clear “right to disconnect” policy with your team, and implement smart habits like using “schedule send” and email disclaimers to respect boundaries.
Authored by: iClick2Learn Team
Understanding the "Right to Disconnect" in Not-for-Profits
The “right to disconnect” is a big legislative change, and you might be wondering what it means for you and the team. Some of you may have seen it applies to small business and thought it doesn’t apply to you. However, many not-for-profits fit the criteria to be a “small business” (generally under 15 employees). For small businesses, this new right officially kicks in on 26 August 2025.
Now, I know this can feel like a real shakeup, especially for a sector that relies on the incredible passion of staff and volunteers who are often only available after what is still considered the standard 9-5 working hours for many. We’ve all been there — I was having an important discussion with a bookkeeper at 8:45 pm the other night about an urgent financial crisis for the organisation we’re supporting.
The ability to have these crisis and urgent conversations are so important, but the new laws mean that if an employee refuses contact outside their hours, we have to respect that unless their refusal is “unreasonable.” I know, that word can feel like it opens a Pandora’s box, right? After all, what’s deemed unreasonable? That’s the key thing you and your employees need to define.
So, what can you do to get ready? Let’s dive in and break it down into some simple, practical steps you can take right now.
Your Action Plan: Getting Ready for the Right to Disconnect
Get to Know the Rules
First things first, let’s get clear on what the law actually says.
Check your Award: Pop over to the Fair Work website and look up the modern award that covers your staff. It will have a specific clause about the right to disconnect that gives you tailored guidelines. If you’re award free, you still need to take this action. It just means you don’t have the award to guide you. You might however like to check another similar award – like the social, community, housing, ageing and disability award. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/awards/awards-summary/ma000100-summary
Talk with others: Some of us have work connections and other small business connections. See what they are doing or have done and how it’s working. See what other organisations are doing and read up on what this means in practice. The Fair Work Ombudsman has some fantastic resources for small businesses.
Understand the “Is it Reasonable?” Test: The law looks at a few things to decide if an employee’s refusal to connect is unreasonable. This includes the reason for the contact (e.g. is it a true emergency?), the employee’s role, their personal circumstances (like family responsibilities), and whether they get paid extra to be available.
Create a "Right to Disconnect" Policy, Together
This is probably the most important step! Writing a policy helps get everyone on the same page.
A note on AI: Yes, of course you can use AI to help guide you – but don’t rely it. Remember to make sure that it considers all relevant factors that relate to your organisation. For example, what happens if you are a farmers market not-for-profit with stallholders, often farmers, who mostly make their calls really early in the morning or in the evening. How will you manage stallholder bookings and changes?
Now, let’s look at some key steps:
Write it Down: Create a simple policy that outlines what you consider reasonable and unreasonable contact. Use real-life scenarios to make it clear . What’s an emergency for your organisation? A client safety issue? A critical system failure? Define it!
*A good tip is to check your risk management plan – it should identify some of the large risk areas. You can also include reference to the right to contact outside of normal hours in the mitigation section of your plan for those emergencies.
Engage and Consult: This is key! Before you adopt the policy, sit down with your employees and get their feedback. This isn’t just a top-down rule; it’s about creating a team agreement that works for everyone. Ultimately the right to disconnect is theirs and the conversation needs to be open and transparent and you should take guidance from them on their boundaries.
Have Honest Conversations: Chat with the people you might need to contact after hours, like your CEO/Manager, or if you have a few staff it might also include your finance officer/bookkeeper and HR support. Use scenarios to talk through what feels reasonable to each of you. Setting these guidelines together builds trust and respect.
*One tip here is that you may have staff members with different boundaries. Your policy might be general and you may have written agreements with individual staff defining the particulars.
Put Some Smart Habits into Practice
Small changes in how we work can make a huge difference. Here are a few of our favourite actionable tips :
Separate Work and Personal: A great tip is to make sure your employees aren’t using their personal email for work. This might sound like an unusual tip for some, but for very small not-for-profits with one staff member this is a likely norm. Doing this is also a fantastic risk strategy if you’re in this situation because if they leave, you won’t lose access to important records!
Use the “Schedule Send” Superpower: For those of us who work odd hours (I see you!), this is a game-changer. If you’re writing an email late at night, just schedule it to send during their normal work times. It’s a simple way to show you respect their downtime.
Add a Friendly Email Disclaimer: This is a brilliant little trick. Try adding a statement like this to your email signature:
I work flexibly. I’m sending this message now because it’s a good time for me, but I don’t expect you to read, respond, or action it outside of your own regular working hours.
This little sentence perfectly models the culture you want to create—one of respect, flexibility, and clear boundaries.
The flip side of this email disclaimer is one for your employees to share. This helps remind everyone about the agreed boundaries. Here’s an example:
If you’ve contacted me outside my working hours (Monday – Wednesday, 10:30am – 2:30pm), then I’ll get back to you during these times. For urgent help outside these times, please contact [ Name] at [name.email@example.com.au].
They could also set up an automatic out-of-office message for those days and times outside their working hours as well.
Summary
By thinking about this now, you’re already setting your organisation and your team up for success. It’s all about clear communication, mutual respect, and a bit of forward planning. We love the passion that you all bring to your work, and these changes are ultimately here to help protect everyone.
We don’t want our valuable employees to leave because they just can’t get away from work and they’re burnt out. It’s one of the most common causes for losing valuable employees in the not-for-profit sector. Taking these steps will help you all.
More resources:
https://www.fwc.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/news/new-education-material-about-right-disconnect
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