[Infowarrior] - Fwd: France to forbid non-work-hours work-email

[Richard Forno]

--
It's better to burn out than fade away.

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: dan
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36249647
> 
> The plan to ban work emails out of hours
> 
>   By Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris
>     * 11 May 2016
>     * From the section [59]Magazine
> 
>   Should governments step in to regulate work emails and so rescue
>   harassed staff from the perils of digital burnout? The answer
>   in France appears to be "Yes". President Francois Hollande's
>   Socialist Party is about to vote through a measure that will
>   give employees for the first time a "right to disconnect".
> 
>   Companies of more than 50 people will be obliged to draw up a
>   charter of good conduct, setting out the hours - normally in the
>   evening and at the weekend - when staff are not supposed to send
>   or answer emails.
> 
>   Much mockery was made in the foreign press when the proposal was
>   first mooted, with images of hawk-eyed work inspectors snooping
>   on the industrious.
> 
>   But the French government says the problem of permanent connection
>   is universal and growing - and that intervention is needed.
> 
>   "All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today
>   than there used to be, and that the stress is constant," Socialist
>   MP Benoit Hamon tells me.
> 
>     You're at home but you're not at home, and that poses a real
>     threat to relationshipsLinh Le, management consultant
> 
>   "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 colonise
>   the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually
>   breaks down."
> 
>   The measure is part of a labour law - named after Labour Minister
>   Maryam El Khomri - many of whose other provisions have sparked
>   weeks of protests in France. The "disconnection" clause is about
>   the only part on which there is consensus.  Image copyright Getty
>   Images Image caption A protester holds a placard reading 'heinous
>   labour bill' on the Place de la Republique in Paris
> 
>   Few - in France or elsewhere - would disagree that work-home
>   encroachment is a troubling by-product of the digital revolution.
> 
>   "At home the workspace can be the kitchen or the bathroom or the
>   bedroom. We shift from a work email to a personal WhatsApp to a
>   Facebook picture to a professional text - all on the same tool,"
>   says Linh Le, a partner at Elia management consultants in Paris.
> 
>   "You're at home but you're not at home, and that poses a real
>   threat to relationships," she says.
> 
>   Le says the businesses she advises are increasingly aware of the
>   dangers to staff. The most extreme threat is so-called burnout
>   which she describes as "physical, psychological and emotional
>   distress caused by a total inability to rest".  Image copyright
>   iStock
> 
>   But apart from wishing to spare their suffering, companies also
>   need employees to be creative. And this is less likely, says Le,
>   without regular downtime.
> 
>   She applauds a US insurance company that has given workers sleep
>   monitors and pays them a bonus if they get 20 consecutive nights
>   of good sleep.
> 
>   "It shows how good companies recognise the importance of not
>   harassing workers at home.
> 
>   "Here in France we speak of the two types of time, as defined
>   by the Greeks: chronos and keiros. Chronos is regular, divisible
>   time. Keiros is unconscious time... creative time.
> 
>   "Keiros is essential for productive thinking, and good employers
>   know they need to protect it."
> 
>   But will the law work? Many have doubts.
> 
>   At PriceMinister - an online marketplace run from central Paris
>   - chief executive Olivier Mathiot has instituted "no-email
>   Fridays", to encourage employees to resort less to digital
>   messaging.
> 
>   Sales manager Tiphanie Schmitt says this idea is fine - it helps
>   to get people to talk - but she would resist any government
>   interference in the way she does her job.
> 
>     In my company we compete with Indian, Chinese, American
>     developers - we need to talk to people around the world late
>     into the nightGregory, software writer
> 
>   "I do sales. I like doing sales. It means I use email late into
>   the evening, and at the weekend. I don't want my company preventing
>   me from using my mail box just because of some law," she says.
> 
>   Similar views can be heard expressed at the Bowler pub near the
>   Champs-Elysees, a hang-out for financial and computer workers.
> 
>   "I think [the right to disconnect] is wonderful for improving
>   the human condition but totally inapplicable," says software
>   writer Gregory.
> 
>   "In my company we compete with Indian, Chinese, American developers.
>   We need to talk to people around the world late into the night.
>   Our competitors don't have the same restrictions.
> 
>   "If we obeyed this law we would just be shooting ourselves in
>   the foot."
> 
>   Olivier Mathiot of PriceMinister says the issue should be addressed
>   by education rather than legislation.
> 
>   "In France we are champions at passing laws, but they are not
>   always very helpful when what we need is greater flexibility in
>   the workplace," he says.
> 
>   And according to Linh Le at Elia Consulting, the law will be
>   very quickly made irrelevant. "In a few years' time emails will
>   have ceased to exist," she predicts. "We'll have moved on to
>   something else."
> 
>   Even cheerleaders such as the MP Benoit Hamon admit that the
>   impact of the law will only go so far - as presently drafted
>   there is no penalty for violating it. Companies are expected to
>   comply voluntarily.
> 
>   But almost everyone in France agrees that the subject of
>   communications overload is one that needs to be on every employer's
>   agenda.
>