Posted on 01/02/2017 5:03:09 AM PST by southern rock
A new French law establishing workers’ “right to disconnect” goes into effect today. The law requires companies with more than 50 employees to establish hours when staff should not send or answer emails. The goals of the law include making sure employees are fairly paid for work, and preventing burnout by protecting private time.
French legislator Benoit Hamon, speaking to the BBC, described the law as an answer to the travails of employees who “leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash—like a dog.”
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
“I’m a small business owner (engineering) and refuse to expand and hire employees. Partners do 100% of the work now because we’d then be in competition with sweatshops and refuse to treat humans that way.”
Another consequence is that if you find a competent person you’d like to hire as a small company, that persons wants to be a partner. Telling them no is like eating in front of a hungry dog.
This is a self-imposed rule for me. I receive 200+ emails a day, most just FYI. My time is my time. If something is really falling apart they can call me and I will be happy to jump in, otherwise I will deal with it the next time I am in the office. I am fortunate enough that I am not in daily operations anymore, those answers can’t wait. Vacations— leave me alone!
People have created this problem on their own. They love checking their cell on a regular basis. Cell phones are the creator of self imposed stress, people follow everything that goes on at work while simultaneously receiving texts from people who are sharing their problems in life.
Maybe a little difficult to find people on the East Coast willing to be in the office from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM to handle the odd Pacific Rim call? Personally, if it was absolutely necessary I didn’t find it too much of a bother to speak with the office in Ohio from my hotel room in Singapore at 10:00 PM my time to catch them at 10:00 AM theirs. Part of the job. I certainly don’t want the government to have the authority to tell us we weren’t allowed to do so.
” Or, if you are an IT worker on call for a possible major breakdown or breach, you need to be reachable.”
Then give the profits of that dedication or use your profits to hire someone else to be on call. The person that wrote your software is no more responsible to be on call 24x7 to fix your software than they are to fix your leaky roof.
Proper management has that software properly spec’d and tested, and proper management has nighttime staff without trying to cheaply rely on the daytime staff.
I worked at properly managed places like NORAD. We never relied on calling the daytime staff to handle systems issues. NORAD properly engineered systems and had nighttime staff (obviously).
Companies tend to operate that someone else should make them rich. “Hurry, somebody, make me rich! I’ll just be on the golf course. Suckers.”
I’m generally against government intrusion into our lives. However if you rely on the government for any workers protection, then I do not believe this exceeds that. They still have means to contact you outside of business hours without making you a slave to corporate emails. I know you can make the argument that it is your choice to pay attention to those communications or not, but at the higher corporate levels it is a choice between paying attention and responding, or losing your job.
I personally receive 100-200 emails daily outside of work hours. I must at a minimum glance at them and figure out if there are any that require a timely response. It is a constant intrusion into my family and private life. I would have no problem with people reaching out to me directly via other means if they required a response and leave me alone for all of the other BS on my time.
For the average garden-variety conservative these days the thinking is "better bureaucrats for better bureaucracy."
“When a call can be worth millions, you call and you answer the call.”
The typical employee doesn’t see any millions. Owners do. They should take the call.
The owner doesn’t have the answer worth the millions.
“I take it you don’t have direct interaction responsibilities providing professional services to high-value clients.”
Yes, I do and have. I NEVER rely on daytime staff to work 24x7. I have always had proper management that has targeted staff for high value clients.
It is irresponsible to stretch daytime staff into nights, weekends, and holidays to handle high value clients. If the client is high value then you had best have better plan than just hope someone else is “on call”.
Again, I come from a NORAD/SPACECOM background where I learned proper 24x7 management skills. I apply those skills to my commercial businesses. I don’t skimp, go cheap, or use “hope” as a business plan. I don’t rely on the charity of my day staff to cover nights.
“The owner doesn’t have the answer worth the millions.”
Another perfect point. Why are they the owner? If you want my million dollar answer, pay me. In fact, that situation has been how many companied have started.
Employees find they have the million dollar answer, withhold it from their employer because they are not getting paid anything more than their salary for the answer while their employer walks away with millions, and start their own business.
Being cheap and arrogant has cost many a company million dollar answers. I could write a book on that subject using examples from my lifetime.
I still disagree. People must be able to stand up for themselves and are not slaves. The only reason people do not stand up for themselves is because they are already being indoctrinated in the school system into subservience and obedience.
Thanks for the note.
My note may have given the wrong impression. Over the years I was able to put in place solutions that were insured by Force of Structure rather than my Force of Will. I also had all of those sites correspond between themselves for solutions before involving me. It is not like they fell of the bandwagon every day.
But when there was a real problem, they knew to involve me, as not doing so was going to be millions of dollars lost.
In other words, a high value client should be properly staffed or your competitors will come in.
And that is problem.
I can understand having a philosophical argument about this. Heck, I looove a good intellectual rhubarb. But when it comes to real world experience, this gov’t planning crap just does NOT work. Case in point: France.
They are the owner because theyou put up the millions of dollars up front.
How dare the government meddle more and more into private business. If the employees don’t like taking work home, then find another job.
I don’t know what kind of companies you work for, but I’ve been a contractor for over 26 years in IT. I also have a little over 10 years experience working temporary as a secretary back in the olden days. Oh, and I only have a high school education and am not a recipient of any particular privilege.
I’ve never seen the type of abuse that you describe. I’m sure it exists, but only to those willing to allow it to happen.
That said, I have worked primarily for high end companies and only a few really small companies. I would never tolerate such abuse, but I also make very sure to make myself valuable. Trying to earn a living and support a family on a very low end, low paying job is probably not a very good idea and is probably where most of the abuse occurs.
If you need the government to negotiate your working terms and conditions, you need and want a socialist system. Personal responsibility is necessary for a free society.
“In other words, a high value client should be properly staffed or your competitors will come in.”
Absolutely. When I was a consultant I looked exactly for that situation: Underserved clients. Many of my large clients were from that type of situation.
We’d go to golf outings, conferences, charity events, wherever, and speak with business leaders. They’d tell us stories of being underserved. “I’ve got this warehouse company that doesn’t seem to understand our business, and I never can seem to get anyone on site to answer my questions and concerns. They’re out of Omaha and their software guys I think are offshore.” It was like taking candy from a baby.
“They are the owner because theyou put up the millions of dollars up front.”
Yes, but capital doesn’t equal success. I’ve seen many a VC and business owner lose their investments because of poor management policies.
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