It is now illegal to email employees after work hours

folarin okunola

June 1, 2016 11:44 AM

The new law states that in a company where the staff strength is at least 50 or more, you cannot send an email to an employee after stipulated work hours. Once Jacques closes by 6pm, don't disturb his life, basically.

Work emails sent after work have now been banned in France

In France, working conditions are already quite great. Employees get 30 day off a year, 16 weeks of full-paid family leave, and even a 35-hour work week. Sweet if you ask me.

Apparently, the French government does not think that is enough security or relaxation for employees in the country and it has come up with a new law that makes it illegal to send work emails after work hours.

Yes, you read that correctly. Do you want to read it again to be sure?

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“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly told the BBC, according to Innovation Village. “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 colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”

The new law stipulates that companies must negotiate policies that limit the spillover of work into the private lives of their employees. Although there are no penalties per se for companies that default, there have been protests in certain quarters, citing weakened unions and enhanced employee job insecurity as fall backs of the new law.

As weird as this may seem, the French government may actually have a point. An Adobe poll from last year shows that email is an addiction for American workers - 87 percent of people check work email outside of work, and 50 percent check it even if they are on vacation.

Various studies have found that phone addiction triggers stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep, so maybe the French governments decision isn't so far-fetched after all. Whether Nigerians have any hope of anything that resembles this new French law is talk for another day.

folarin okunola