Weekend Work Emails Are Now Illegal In France

[jimmy olsen]

I would hope the government is expemt from this law, otherwise emergency management is going to take a hit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/work-emails-france-labor-law_us_57455130e4b03ede4413515a

Weekend Work Emails Are Now Illegal In France

"The right to disconnect" has been codified in law.

 05/25/2016 05:57 am ET | Updated 5 hours ago 

Dominique Mosbergen  

Senior Writer, The Huffington Post

Checking your work email on a weekend or a holiday? In France, where employees have been granted "the right to disconnect," that's now against the law.

Buried inside a recently enacted — and hotly contested — French labor reform bill is an amendment banning companies of 50 or more employees from sending emails after typical work hours. "The right to disconnect" amendment, as it's so called, is aimed at minimizing the negative impacts of being excessively plugged in.

"All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant," Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly told the BBC earlier this month. "Employees 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."

Work-related burnout appears to be a growing concern for the French government. In February, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine formed a working group in an effort to define and treat work-related exhaustion. According to an April article in the French daily Les Échos, about 1 in 10 of the nation's workforce is at a high risk of job-related burnout.

Under the new law, companies are mandated to negotiate formal policies to limit the spillover of work, specifically as it's related to "digital technology," into the private lives of employees. This, according to the BBC, will involve companies establishing "charters of good conduct" specifying hours, typically in the evenings and weekends, when employees aren't supposed to send or receive email.

"The development of information and communication technologies, if badly managed or regulated, can have an impact on the health of workers," Article 25 of the bill reads. "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 have lauded this clause as a win in the battle against over-connectedness.

"The right to disconnect isn't necessarily an obligation ... but it's an opportunity — to claim a little breathing room; to realize that the world won't stop turning, or even producing words or widgets, without one person's constant vigilance," wrote The New Yorker's Lauren Collins this week. 

Others, though, have warned that the law doesn't go far enough.

Jon Whittle, a researcher at Digital Brain Switch, a U.K. project looking at the impacts of digital technology on work-life balance, told The Washington Post that some employees may feel even more overwhelmed at the thought of returning, in the morning or post-vacation, to a deluge of emails.

"I think the topic of work-related well-being is much larger than simply stopping email after-hours," Whittle said. "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 advocates of the bill, such as Hamon, the national education minister, have admitted that the law has its limits. There is currently no penalty for violating the law and companies are expected to voluntarily adhere to it.

Still, the ban appears to be the one — perhaps only — part of the labor reform bill that's been largely positively received.

The bill, referred to as the El Khomri labor law after Labor Minister Maryan El Khomri, has been enormously unpopular. Critics of the bill say it will weaken unions, threaten employee rights and enhance job insecurity for young people. In recent months, opponents have staged widespread, at times violent, protests.

Earlier this month, the French government invoked a rarely-used clause in the constitution to impose the controversial bill.

"It is my duty to move forward and make sure this text is adopted," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament after an emergency cabinet meeting, prompting an onslaught of both boos and cheers.

[Jaron]

The nanny state is thriving in France. This is what Bernie Bros want America to become. A land where the strong and efficient are shackled by the insecurities and flaws of the weak and useless.

[Jacob]

The nanny state is thriving in France. This is what Bernie Bros want America to become. A land where the strong and efficient are shackled by the insecurities and flaws of the weak and useless.

Is that what your boss' email said?

[Jaron]

The nanny state is thriving in France. This is what Bernie Bros want America to become. A land where the strong and efficient are shackled by the insecurities and flaws of the weak and useless.

Is that what your boss' email said?

My boss doesn't email me on the weekend unless its important. However, I email my boss all the time...

[alfred russel]

My boss doesn't email me on the weekend unless its important. However, I email my boss all the time...

I imagine your boss is a jew and the messages are along the lines of:

"Do you sometimes feel lost in life? Without purpose? Do you wonder what the purpose of all this is and your role?

I used to ask those same questions until I found the answers. The answers in the Book of Mormon and the Church of Latter Day Saints"

[dps]

Checking your work email on a weekend or a holiday? In France, where employees have been granted “the right to disconnect,” that’s now against the law.

Given what's in the article, this line appears to be inaccurate.  It seems it's illegal for your employer to send you an e-mail after working hours, but there doesn't seem to be anything preventing an individual employee from checking their e-mail whenever they want.

[The Brain]

France is weird. I suppose people who have jobs that don't actually matter don't want e-mails from their bosses, and those might well be in the majority in France, but still...

[Martinus]

The real problem is the culture of having to constantly do more and constantly do better than competitors.

That's the real problem? 

[Josquius]

Would have thought there would have been a memo at work about this if it was really so strict.
Interesting

[mongers]

Finally some progress in the world.

[garbon]

Finally some progress in the world.

Yeah, I love how it'll make it more difficult to get stuff from my French team.

[Maladict]

I find having separate work and private phones solves most of this problem.
Email notifications are switched off and colleagues rarely call in the evening, and if they do it's for good reasons.
On weekends and holidays the work phone is switched off completely.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, I love how it'll make it more difficult to get stuff from my French team.

That's got to be, like, an occluded front of bitch.   

[garbon]

Yeah, I love how it'll make it more difficult to get stuff from my French team.

That's got to be, like, an occluded front of bitch.   

[mongers]

I find having separate work and private phones solves most of this problem.
Email notifications are switched off and colleagues rarely call in the evening, and if they do it's for good reasons.
On weekends and holidays the work phone is switched off completely.

Careful, Garbon will accuse you of being a socialist.