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Author
Annotation
This paper examines competition outside working hours as a labour-law and ethical risk arising from constant digital connectivity. It argues that the right to rest is not effectively protected when after-hours availability becomes an informal criterion for loyalty, commitment, or professional development. The relationship between voluntary professional activity, inequality within the workforce, and the risk of occupational burnout is explored. Particular attention is paid to the employer’s negative and positive organisational duties to ensure genuine rest, transparent assessment criteria, and equal temporal access to professional tasks. The study proposes legal, internal organisational, technical, and managerial safeguards, together with de lege ferenda amendments to the protection under Article 154b of the Bulgarian Labour Code. Its practical value lies in supporting employer rules on professional communication, workload assessment, and burnout prevention, so that workplace competition is based on the quality of work rather than on an employee’s readiness to surrender personal time.
Keywords
competition outside working hours; right to rest; right to disconnect; professional burnout; digital connectivity; equality; employer mechanisms
