The Right to Disconnect

Today's society is marked by the widespread use and quick integration of mobile devices into daily life. The facilitated connectivity of mobile devices such as smartphones leave people in an ‘always on’ state and feel the obligation to be constantly available and connected. Digital wellbeing is a concept that encapsulates how individuals navigate the drawbacks and benefits of 24/7 connectivity as a result of mobile media. The phenomenon is based on the idea that person-, context- and device-specific factors can influence one’s experience with digital media and can have external effects. Through a digital wellbeing lens, this study sets out to explore the effect of life-work interferences through smartphone use and digital stress components (availability stress and connection overload) on employee engagement and job satisfaction. A survey was sent out to 168 full-time white-collar employees. The results were able to partially confirm one of the hypotheses; that work interrupting nonwork behaviours enabled through smartphone use are a significant predictor of Vigour (an employee engagement dimension). Regarding the remaining hypotheses, there were no other significant association between work-life interferences and job satisfaction in addition the moderation effect of perceived organisational support (POS) was not significant. However, POS was found to be a significant predictor of employee engagement and job satisfaction. For digital stress, the results concluded that there was no association between availability stress and connection overload and the employee outcomes; engagement or job satisfaction. The findings suggest that maintaining boundaries between work and life on mobile devices is essential as it can affect one’s engagement at work. Finally, the results highlight the importance of perceived organisational support influence with regards to employee outcomes.