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Do you leave work behind when you physically move out of your workplace? Or do the texts, messages, emails keep pulling you back, monopolizing your life beyond work hours? Do you believe that this can get to a point where an individual eventually breaks down?
These questions were answered with a new French labour reform law enforced from January 1 2017. It requires French companies with more than 50 workers to guarantee their employees a "right to disconnect" from technology after office hours. Companies need to start discussions with employees to define their rights to ignore work related messages. If a deal cannot be reached, the company must publish a charter that would state the demands on, and rights of, employees out-of-hours.
[...] Other countries too have attempted to address the issue of out-of-office work stress. In Japan, Tokyo's governor has ordered strict monitoring of those working beyond 8pm. A German law forbids managers from contacting employees on vacation. South Korea, known for its gruelling work hours, launched a work-life balance campaign last year to encourage annual leaves.
But despite these examples, most remain skeptical of such a law being passed in other countries, especially the U.S., where long workweeks and foregone vacation time are the norm. In 2015, the French worked an average of 1,482 hours a year, while Americans worked about 1,790 hours. U.S. workers not just get less vacation time than their European counterparts but also end up using only 73% of it.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:13PM
Feudalism sucks, doesn't it? I donno how this brainwashing works, but the serfs have this weird sense of loyalty to their abuser. Like a battered wife sticking to her husband. Actually its like sports nerds going insane about some team they don't own and have no financial or managerial control over yet they ally themselves anyway as if their slavish devotion actually matters.
Contract work is a little different. Extreme pride in my product, I know I make the best stuff possible under the known constraints. But, a fair days wage for a a fair days work. Do I care if the boss sent an email at 10pm about the new dress code for the employees (not me)? Not just no, "F no". Whereas the feudal serfs compete to see who can kiss up the most in a response email at 11pm. I'm just not involved in their sick game.
The extreme of contract work is the building trades. The licensed electrician who did the 3-phase wiring at the mini-datacenter I used to work at, really didn't care if the IT manager was an asshole or not. Frankly I didn't either. Sign my work order, you can expect a FAX/email invoice tomorrow morning, see ya.
Abusive bullies are a different problem, I've noticed over the decades that they need to pound on someone but it certainly doesn't have to be you. If you don't play along with their twisted game they'll get pissed off for a little while or maybe get rid of you, but one way or another if you stop playing the game then you're out of the game, which was what you want. Another interesting less active way to deal with bullies is passive aggressive. Its 10pm on Tuesday and he's screaming, I can let him scream all night I don't give a F, pass me another beer and some popcorn, this is fun to watch. I've noticed screamers who think they're hot stuff in the business world would be the wimpiest beta drill sergeants you can imagine, "business world intimidating" level means nothing to me, it makes me laugh. If you sound like a wimpy beta nu-male parody of "Full Metal Jacket" then at least some of your employees are laughing and probably triggering you for fun, I know I used to trigger people like that for fun. Go active, go passive, whatever you do, don't mindlessly react like they expect.
Manage your boss. Or else.