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French companies will be required to guarantee a "right to disconnect" to their employees from Sunday as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking. From January 1, a new employment law will enter into force that obliges organisations with more than 50 workers to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones.
Overuse of digital devices has been blamed for everything from burnout to sleeplessness as well as relationship problems, with many employees uncertain of when they can switch off. The French measure is intended to tackle the so-called "always-on" work culture that has led to a surge in usually unpaid overtime—while also giving employees flexibility to work from outside the office.
http://phys.org/news/2017-01-french-workers-disconnect.html
[Also Covered By]: The Guardian , Sky News
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Bogsnoticus on Tuesday January 03 2017, @05:48AM
But it seems it is illegal in some countries.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 03 2017, @05:59AM
過労死
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 03 2017, @06:26AM
Don't bother, Bog'll look at that and go "hurr hurr I don't into Chinee chinkee hong yang howaaai~!" or some shit.
I am also willing to bet he's never seen what fruit pickers do during the average workday, and most certainly could not endure it himself.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 03 2017, @08:40AM
Crom: Look. This... is all a mistake. I'm just a compound interest program. I work at a savings and loan! I can't play in these video games!
Guard: Sure you can, pal. You look like a natural athlete if I ever saw one.
Crom: Who, me? Are you kidding? No, I run to check on T-bill rates, I get out of breath. Hey, look, you guys are gonna make my User, Mr. Henderson, very angry. He's a full-branch manager.
(Score: 2) by Bogsnoticus on Tuesday January 03 2017, @10:35PM
*Whoosh*
I guess some senses of humour are far too subtle for SJW's to understand.
Here's an ice cream. Shove it down the back of your pants to soothe thine butthurt.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 04 2017, @03:29AM
Oh, you were trying to be funny? Well, Bogs, it's been said that wit is intellect dancing. Unfortunately, your intellect appears to be a quadraplegic. And it thinks the equivalent of "Achy Breaky Heart" is the new in thing.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bogsnoticus on Wednesday January 04 2017, @05:48AM
I would love to continue this battle of the minds with you Azuma, but I was always taught never to fight an unarmed opponent.
Have fun in your "safe space".
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 04 2017, @07:46AM
You project like a mile of movie theaters, Bogs. I've seen your post history; forget bringing a knife to a gun fight, you brought a limp noodle. A small one you keep holstered in your pants. Face it, you got called out for the useless, self-congratulatory oxygen thief you are. Go sit in the kiddie corner with Uzzard and J-Mo (watch out, he bites, and I'm pretty sure he's got rabies...).
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday January 03 2017, @01:00PM
Except, of course, that hard work does in fact kill people:
* About 4500 Americans a year are killed on the job [bls.gov]. In less developed countries, that number is much higher.
* Even more end up with diseases they contracted on the job [who.int]. Again, worse in less-developed countries, but we're talking thousands of people a year getting cancer or wrecking their lungs by breathing in pollution.
* Many suicides are related to the stresses of hard work. For example, a disproportionate 400 newer doctors each year off themselves [afsp.org]. This most frequently happens during medical residency, when the newly minted doctor officially has to work 80 hours a week, and unofficially often more than that, for 3-4 years straight.
Also, what they're making illegal is getting people into career trouble over things like failing to answer non-emergency work emails at 2 AM on a Saturday night within 30 minutes or less. And if you think that's a far-fetched scenario, know that I was pushed out of a job in the US with the boss citing precisely that issue, because apparently sleeping wasn't something I was allowed to do if I worked for that company.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday January 03 2017, @01:38PM
It appears you have no clue what hard work is. To point to some extremes, in Germany forced labor was used to work humans to death. But also under more common circumstances, exhaustion due to work has severe live-shortening consequences. Stress can lead to sudden-death by e.g. heart-attacks, lack of sleep causes dementia [dailymail.co.uk], weight-gain [webmd.com] (also contributing to heart-attackt), and of course a whole lot of psychological problems (burnout, bad temper leading to relationship-problems, etc.), leading to significantly higher suicide-rates and car-accident-rates.
Lack of occupation can also lead to depressions, fatigue etc. with similar consequences. With current unemployment-rates and productivity increases, it should be possible to employ more people and reduce the working-hours per worker. If there are not enough qualified workers, the ones that do exist should have the power to dictate the terms of their employment and there is no reason for them to themselves being exploited. If there are more than enough qualified workers, there is no justification to overwork a few of them and keep the rest in unemployment. Since the workers seem to be insufficiently organized enforce their own protection, the state should very well step in.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 03 2017, @03:08PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernichtung_durch_Arbeit [wikipedia.org] :)