Rest and recovery are important values for effective and sustainable ministry. Southridge Community Church recognizes the importance of employees disconnecting from the responsibilities of what is deemed to be their regular work hours as agreed upon with their supervisor and summarized in their employee dashboard. “Disconnecting” applies to work and work-related communications, including emails, text messages, telephone calls, video calls or meetings.
Work-related communications may be sent to non-working employees, provided the sender has a reasonable expectation that the message(s) will not be reviewed or addressed until the recipient returns to work.
Communication outside of agreed-upon regular work hours may be necessary from time to time, but these scenarios should be considered “emergency only.” In such “emergency” situations, communication should be kept brief and concise so as to respect the non-working employee’s efforts to disconnect from work.
If an employee has concerns regarding their capacity to disconnect after agreed-upon regular work hours, they may report these concerns to their supervisor or the HR Manager. Their concerns will be taken seriously, without penalty, and a solution will be sought to resolve the concern.