Many of us live and die by our email and we couldn’t imagine not checking our email on almost a continual basis. This is also an issue with many of our bosses, because they expect us to be on call and answer, regardless of whether it is a weekend, holiday or an evening with your family.
New legislation in France is now encouraging companies to put policies into place that would allow employees to disconnect during off hours.
This legislation is buried inside of a French labor reform bill. It is a part of an amendment that suggest if a company has 50 or more employees, they have to form a policy to limit how work spills over into the private life of those workers. Part of this may involve establishing a policy that limits the hours when employees can receive work-related emails.
According to Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly:
All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant. mployees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash- like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails – they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.
The French government is concerned about work-related burnout. French health Minister Marisol Touraine formed a group to discuss the possibility of work-related exhaustion and to provide a definition for it. Approximately 10% of the workforce in France is at a high risk for job-related burnout.
Article 25 of the bill reads as follows: “The development of information and communication technologies, if badly managed or regulated, can have an impact on the health of workers. Among them, the burden of work and the informational overburden, the blurring of the borders between private life and professional life, are risks associated with the usage of digital technology.”
Some are now heralding this clause as being a triumph for the battle over being over-connected. Others, however, warn that this provision doesn’t address enough of the problem.
According to John Weddle, a researcher at Digital Brain Switch, some employees may actually feel overwhelmed at the thought of returning in the morning because of all of the email that would be waiting for them. He had the following to say:
“I think the topic of work-related well-being is much larger than simply stopping email after-hours. Email is just a medium used to communicate. The real problem is the culture of having to constantly do more and constantly do better than competitors.”
Even if the employee disconnect has received some praise, the labor reforms are still under fire. All in all, it has been an unpopular legislation and it has been met with extreme and at times, violent protests.
Graine de révolte ! « « La nuit c’est fait pour baiser pas pour travailler » @humanite_fr : https://t.co/wTTJlp2DQR pic.twitter.com/zUUvut5d62
— l'Humanité.fr (@humanite_fr) March 25, 2016
The powers that be are determined to push this legislation through the lower chamber of Parliament. According to the Prime Minister, he feels that it is his duty to move forward and make sure that the text is adopted.
Via: Huffington Post
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