The latest studies on work disconnection show that availability outside of working hours continues to grow, although this general picture does not always reflect the specific reality of frontline or deskless workers, who carry out their activities outside the office and whose work communication may depend on their personal mobile phone.
The latest Study on Well-being and Labor Health in Spain 2026, prepared by Edenred and Savia, and reported by Ommnio, a company specializing in the digitalization of internal communication in operational environments, reveals that 81.6% of professionals in Spain answer calls or messages related to work outside their working hours, compared to 65% the previous year. This figure represents an increase of 16.6 percentage points in just one year.
In parallel, a survey by InfoJobs published in 2025 placed the percentage of workers who continue to answer calls, messages, or emails during their holidays at 63%. The study also indicates that two out of three employees claim that their company does not implement any measures to promote digital disconnection.
When there is no “out of office” button
A large part of the debate on digital disconnection is built around workers who have corporate email, a computer, or easily identifiable work tools that they can stop using at the end of their workday. However, for frontline employees, the problem can be different.
Workers in retail, logistics, hospitality, industry, maintenance, or direct customer service may work with variable shifts and require agile communication to receive notifications, shift changes, or operational instructions. In some organizations, this coordination occurs through WhatsApp and the employee's personal phone.
In these cases, disconnection does not simply consist of closing a laptop or activating an automatic reply. The worker may continue to be part of communication groups that remain active throughout the summer, even when they are on holiday.
While in an office environment there are tools and routines designed to delimit the working day, workers who carry out their activities outside the office need channels that allow for effective communication when they are working without making that availability permanent.
Disconnecting also depends on how communication is organized
The data suggests that the difficulty in disconnecting is not solely a matter of individual habits. It is also related to how companies organize their communications and establish boundaries between work activity and rest time. According to InfoJobs, only 9% of workers state that their company promotes communications to raise awareness about the right to disconnect, and another 9% receive automatic messages informing them of business hours and providing an alternative contact in case of emergency.
The difficulty in disconnecting also extends to the entire vacation period. The HR & Payroll Pulse 2026 study by SD Worx indicates that Spanish workers believe they need an average of 27.1 days of vacation to completely disconnect from work, one of the highest figures in Europe. For frontline teams, establishing specific communication channels can help differentiate between information they need to receive while active and that which can wait until their return.
This need also becomes apparent when companies have to respond to exceptional situations, such as fires, adverse weather phenomena, or any other circumstance that forces a temporary modification of their operations. In these cases, having specific channels allows instructions to be conveyed to teams quickly and clearly without necessarily resorting to informal communications that may remain active outside of working hours.
Therefore, work disconnection should not be considered solely as an individual decision to stop checking email or turning off a device. For workers who carry out their activities outside the office, the challenge also lies in having business communication capable of remaining active when necessary and shutting down when rest begins.
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