- 70.8% of evening instant repliers were promoted in the last two years
- Promotion is 1.3x more likely for instant replies than those who wait until next morning
- Millennials get the biggest rewards for fast replies in research published by workforce solutions company Careerminds UK
Achieving a work-life balance by disconnecting from work on an evening may be good for your peace of mind and family life, but it might just cause you to miss out on a promotion, a new report has claimed.
Research conducted for Careerminds UK found replying to that late evening message from your manager before you hit the sack can increase your chances of a desirable new role.
Its report found 7 in 10 (70.8%) respondents who admitted to being “instant repliers” got a promotion in the last two years, far more than the cohort that opted for an approach of “let me live my life for a few hours.”
Millennial men message more
Elsewhere, the research is split, with Millennials far more likely to get promoted for evening communication than Gen Xers. This report emerges just months after the British government’s plans for a “Right to Switch Off” was put on hold.
Careerminds’ research found that, essentially, “The slower the reply, the lower the promotion rate.” Replying to out of hours messages immediately is a 70.8% promotion rate; replying within the hour drops the rate to 68.2%, while replying next morning is 55.1%.
There is a gender split, too, with 79.0% of those quick responders in the last two years listed as men, compared with 60.8% marked as women.
Also of interest is the generational difference. The research shows 86.0% of millennials with a fast response for responding to messages out of contracted hours were promoted, compared with 47.2% of Gen X employees (44 to 59). Gen Z employees gained promotion at a rate of 81.2%.
Interestingly, the quick-response-for-promotion effect doesn’t seem to have any significant advantage for entry level or director suite roles. Instead, it appears to be focused around the middle of an organization’s hierarchy.
What happened to the “Right to Switch Off”?
Intended as a workplace reform to feature in the British government’s Employment Rights Bill, the Right to Switch Off was supported by unions, employees, and even business leaders. However, when the bill was announced, this key aspect was omitted, relegated to the government’s “Next Steps” document.
Unfortunately, subsequent reports indicated that the policy would be scrapped, with a government source telling The Sunday Times that the policy was “dead.” The reasoning? Reducing economic pressure on businesses including “unnecessary barriers” in order to make “Britain the best country in the world in which to do business.”
For comparison, Ireland has had a similar rule for employees to ignore out-of-hours work messages since 2021, and France introduced the right to disconnect in 2017.
With the UK welcoming a new Prime Minister as of July 20, 2026, potentially with different priorities, it remains to be seen whether the Right to Switch Off can be switched back on.
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