Workplace Reloaded. Ensuring Well-Being in the Modern ‘Worksphere’

Despite considerable policy attention on well-being at work, existing legal frameworks fail to sufficiently address the psychological risks associated with modern work environments. Changes to the spatio-temporal aspects of work, which have become ubiquitous since the Covid-19 pandemic, necessitate a reassessment of how the law ensures workers’ well-being. Based on an interdisciplinary approach integrating legal and psychological perspectives, this paper introduces the concept of the ‘worksphere’, which is understood as the boundaryless range of situations typically associated with the performance of work activities, to such an extent that they cannot be differentiated based on whether they occur at the employer’s physical premises – the workplace – or elsewhere. This novel concept of the ‘worksphere’ serves as an analytical instrument to envisage a more comprehensive regulatory approach to well-being at work, overcoming the existing fragmented legal instruments, exemplified by the recent EU initiatives on the right to disconnect and on fair telework.