Kevin O’Leary: ‘Right to disconnect’ laws are crazy; I’ll fire unresponsive staff

• Kevin O’Leary says Australia’s new “right to disconnect” law is “crazy” and “dumb.”
• “Who dreams this crap up is my question. And why would anybody propose such a stupid idea?” he said.
• The “Shark Tank” star said he would fire his employees if they went “silent mode” on him.

“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary isn’t a fan of Australia’s new “right to disconnect” law.

The law, which went into effect on August 26, allows most workers to ignore after-hours calls and texts from their bosses without fear of retaliation.

Similar laws have been passed in countries like France and Belgium.

Kevin O’Leary expressed his strong disapproval during an interview on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” talk show last week.

“What happens if you have an event in the office and it’s closed?” O’Leary questioned. “Or you have an emergency somewhere, and you have to get a hold of them at two in the morning because it affects the job they’re working on and their mandate within the organization?”

O’Leary added that allowing workers to ignore such late-night communications makes no sense to him.

“This kind of stuff just makes me crazy. It’s so dumb. It just — who dreams this crap up is my question. And why would anybody propose such a stupid idea?” he commented on the show.

When asked what he would do if any of his staff chose to go on “silent mode,” O’Leary didn’t hesitate to say he’d let them go.

“Yeah, the next moment is, I just fire them,” he stated.

To be fair, most Australian employees would probably still have to respond to their bosses’ calls under the scenarios O’Leary posited.

“If it was an emergency situation, of course people would expect an employee to respond to something like that,” Australia’s minister for employment and workplace relations Murray Watt said in an interview with Australia’s ABC News.

The law, Watt clarified, would instead hone in on trivial requests.

“But if it’s a run-of-the-mill thing, and let’s face it, we all get emails and phone calls like that from our boss about things that can actually wait till the next workday, then they should wait till the next workday.”

Representatives for O’Leary didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Source: Business Insider