Policy: Disconnecting from Work – Ontario

Effective date: June 2, 2022

Date prepared: May 20, 2022
Date updated: May 20, 2022

Purpose
Employee health and well-being is important. Taking a break from work is vital to your well-
being. Breaks from work also help achieve a healthy and sustainable work-life balance.

Applicability
This policy applies in Ontario, Canada. It applies to all employees in all business lines.

On this page
• Overview
• Disconnecting tenets
• Work-related communications
• Global considerations
• Communications
• Meetings
• Challenges with disconnecting
• Tips on Disconnecting

Overview
Amazon supports employees in balancing their work and personal lives. This policy describes
disconnecting from work when appropriate. As defined by law, “disconnecting from work”
means not engaging in work-related communications, so as to be free from the performance of
work. Interruptions during your off hours should be limited, such as when there is an
operational need, an emergency, while “on-call”, or during a time-sensitive project.

This policy does not create a right to be free from the obligation to engage in work-related
communications.

Nothing in this policy changes Amazon’s work hours expectations that are described in
the Canada: Owner’s Manual. Amazon has the right to schedule and modify your hours of work.
This policy does not prohibit you from being contacted or working outside of your normal hours
of work.
This policy will be provided to all employees within 30 days of it being prepared or updated, and
to new employees within 30 days of being hired.

Disconnecting tenets
• Rest periods are essential: Every individual needs to disconnect from work.
Disconnecting from work help you be at their best at home and at work.
• Every Amazonian is responsible for their well-being and the well-being of
others: Every one of us have a role to play in making disconnecting from work possible
for each other. Our own interactions with others can create a culture that demonstrates
our support for well-being. Employees are encouraged to take ownership of setting
expectations for their own time away from work, and putting into practice the tips set
out below that make sense for them.
• Leaders should lead by example: Managers have a special role in encouraging their team
to disconnect from work. For example, they must ensure that no one person is a “single
point of failure” where their time off creates issues for a customer or other Amazonians.
Managers and their teams should routinely discuss working hours, and put in practice the
tips set out below that makes sense for them.
• Operating globally requires give and take: Our scale, differing customer needs and
global operations may mean there is no “ideal” time for meetings or communications.
Many of us work on global teams, whose working hours may not be the same as ours. We
recognize this and play our part to be flexible and balance competing demands.
• Disconnecting from work does not mean no contact: We recognize that there are many
reasons that a contact is helpful for customers, other Amazonians or ourselves. This
policy does not create a right for you to disconnect from work and be free from the
obligation to engage in work-related communications. This policy does support
employees to raise concerns where contact becomes regular during breaks or non-
working hours.

Work-related communications
You are not expected to routinely respond to communications outside of your normal working
hours in the same manner as during your normal working hours. This includes emails, telephone
calls, video calls, or the sending or reviewing of other messages.

There will be circumstances where you may be called upon to assist with operational needs,
emergencies, critical or time-sensitive issues outside of your normal working hours. In those
cases, we do expect you to respond as appropriate, even outside of your normal working hours.
Global considerations
Our scale, customer needs, and global operations may mean there is no “ideal” time for
meetings or communications. Many of us work on global teams, and our colleagues may have
different working hours. We strive to be considerate and flexible.

Communications
You may receive communications at times which are inconvenient to you, such as the evening
and weekend. Unless there is a critical issue, you may respond during your normal working
hours.

When you send a communication, think about the time it will be received and the potential for
disturbance. Where possible, let the recipient know that you do not expect them to respond
until their normal work hours. This can be helped by adding an e-mail footer (check the Tips on
Disconnecting section of this policy). Recipients may not review a message sent outside of their
working hours.

Meetings
Meetings may include people across multiple time zones. We encourage you to discuss such
meeting requests with the meeting organizer and/or your manager. When meetings regularly
must take place at inconvenient times for some attendees, we recommend alternating the
meeting time.

When you need to attend a meeting outside of your normal work hours, you can take
appropriate rest after the meeting. You should discuss meeting attendance and alternative rest
periods with your manager.

Challenges with disconnecting

It can sometimes be difficult to disconnect. Every Amazonian is responsible for their well-being.
If you are having a hard time balancing your work and personal life, there are a number of
options to consider. One may be to discuss it with the person contacting you or seeking your
time out of hours.

Managers are available to help you address any issues that may be preventing you from having
good work and life balance. As an example, your manager may review your workload and ensure
you can get breaks and time off. They will also check for any difficulties. For example, discussing
when they notice someone sending emails regularly at odd hours or logging in excessively – this
may be a sign that a member of their team is finding it difficult to manage their workload or
“switch-off”. In such instances your manager may review goals, provide training, or offer other
assistance.
We all play a role in supporting this policy. You have a responsibility to raise concerns about
your working time. If you are routinely performing work outside normal working hours, discuss it
with your manager. If you need more support, contact a member of Human Resources.

Tips on Disconnecting
Team Tips:

1. Understand ideal hours may be later in your working day: Some team members may
prefer later evening calls to meet employees in other time zones. They may have family or
care responsibilities during hours immediately after the working day and prefer to log in
again later in the evening.
2. Don’t make assumptions: Just because a member of your team has worked outside of
normal working hours in the past, don’t assume they will do it in the future.
3. Daily Stand up: If you schedule a daily stand up, consider the time zones of the people
required to be on the call. Implement a fixed or rotating schedule that considers and
adjusts, if necessary, for a global audience. Consider utilizing notes or interactive
documents such as Quip to document communications, changes and information share.
4. Effective Use of Meetings: Being considerate in our use of meetings supports effective
working. Consider what is right for you and your team.

Individual Tips:

1. Leadership Principles: Have Backbone: When he facilitates New Hire On boarding, Flint
Weiss often hears questions about work/life balance (or as Jeff B. prefers, work/life
harmony). Flint says his key to finding that balance involves having backbone, setting
boundaries, and keeping a good line of communication with your manager: https://
broadcast.amazon.com/videos/80361.
2. Best Practice E-Mail Signatures: My Typical Availability: 9.00 AM – 3:30 PM, 7.30 PM –
9:00 PM (IST/UTC+5.30) | my calendar is up-to-date. Unless it is urgent, please do not
schedule meetings in the first half on Monday and second half on Friday.
3. Create Rules on Chime/Slack: Outside of not installing these apps on mobile phones,
Employees can change status on Chime to “Do Not Disturb” or to “Away” on Slack.
Employees can update their status in Slack with working times, or create rules to “Pause”
notifications.
4. Out of Office Messages: “My normal working hours are from X to Y. I will respond to you
when I am back at work.’’ “I am currently working flexibly so while it suits me to send this
email now, I do not expect a response or action outside your own working hours”
5. Outlook Tooling: For Windows users, consider using the “Delayed Sending” feature in
Microsoft Outlook. E-mails that are convenient for you to work on outside normal working
hours are not sent to receivers until their normal working time.
6. Separate Work from Life (Remote working): When there's no physical office to leave, it's
easy to work longer than expected. Consider setting reminders to begin and end work.
Proactively planning what you'll do with your commute time is key to ramping into a
workday and ramping off. Leaving your home for a walk or running an errand is a great
way to create unmistakable separation.