CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Right To Disconnect Debate At City Hall

Lakeport city council is weighing a motion that sounds straightforward yet has divided opinion. Under the so-called “right to disconnect,” the city’s 1,400 non-emergency employees would no longer be expected to read or answer work emails, texts or calls between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., or on weekends. Emergency services, already organized around scheduled shifts, would be exempt.

Councillor Dana Whitfield traces the idea to last year’s exit interviews, in which nearly a third of departing employees cited after-hours messages as a reason for leaving, each replacement costing thousands in recruitment. “We’ve been tacitly rewarding whoever answers at eleven at night, then expressing surprise when they burn out,” she argues. Ambition would not be curtailed; anyone may still work late, but nobody could be penalized for waiting until morning.

Marcus Oyelaran, head of the union local representing municipal workers, welcomes the motion while doubting it goes far enough. Removing the expectation of a reply, in his view, leaves the underlying problem untouched. “Members told they needn’t answer have found their files reassigned to colleagues who did.” Staff who genuinely must remain reachable, he argues, belong on paid standby. “Availability is work.”

Priya Nanjiani, an organizational psychologist at Lakeport College who has studied comparable European policies, describes their results as mixed. She accepts that constant connectivity contributes to exhaustion. “But blanket cut-off times can penalize the very employees they’re meant to protect, such as a parent who logs off at three to collect the kids and catches up after bedtime.” She favours letting each team negotiate its own agreement, reviewed annually.

Gordon Tessier, chair of the Lakeport Chamber of Commerce, raises a different concern. Contractors on city projects often discover problems in the evening, and a permit question left until Monday can halt a job for days. Even so, he stops short of outright opposition, acknowledging that City Hall is stretched thin and admitting that he switches off his own phone on Sundays. “Let each department determine what the people it serves actually need,” he suggests.

Whitfield remains unperturbed, dismissing every objection she has heard as a quibble over details.

I spent twelve years in a municipal planning office before a phone that never stopped buzzing wore me down, so I welcome this motion. Councillor Whitfield has diagnosed the problem precisely: the current culture 6. Choose…quietly favours the always availablediscourages staff from working lateleaves contractors stranded for dayspunishes parents who log off early. Mr. Oyelaran is also right that anyone the city truly needs in the evening should 7. Choose…sit outside the policybargain over schedulesbe on the clockpass the work to others. Ms. Nanjiani’s worry leaves me cold; parents could still work after bedtime, and everyone else would gain 8. Choose…a say in team hoursa guilt-free wait until morningextra pay for evening worka shorter working week. As for Mr. Tessier, a permit query is hardly 9. Choose…unusual in constructionthe fault of civil servantsa headache for organized laboura matter of life and death, and the departments that work scheduled shifts are 10. Choose…a case apartcompensated for waitingfree to pick their schedulesreassessed every year anyway. Pass the motion and refine the details later; perfection should not be the enemy of progress.