France has just introduced new labour agreement designed to ban workers accessing work emails outside work hours. (9:00 am -6:00 pm) The agreement struck between a union and employer groups in the technology and consulting sectors (including those employees for Google and Facebook!!) affects thousands of employees. It gives workers permission to ignore any work emails when not officially on duty. Companies are required to ensure workers are under no pressure to do work related activity after hours.

France already enjoys the shortest working week (35 hours) in the EU and 5 weeks paid leave per year plus 10 public holidays.

So how can it be that France’s productivity is amongst the highest in the developed world?
I can imagine Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page are not too happy about their people going off the air for large periods of the day - very brand affecting!!

We are sure there will be no take up here in NZ but it does beg the question whether companies should look at some protocols around handling emails as all of us seem to get buried under the weight of so many per day (ie ban ‘cc’ing for the sake of it etc.)

The bigger question is “Who has it got it right and who has got it wrong?

Expect a mass exodus to the south of France!

by Paul Bell