I am still slightly bewildered by reading this news. To me it sounded like a great fake news article at first. ( may be still is one )
I still wonder how critical outages will be handled in the tech world. E.g. Google/FB Fr faces operational issues or even worse will they shut down their nuclear plants too @ 6 ?
More than 10 years ago, a coworker of mine traveled to Netherlands to set up some servers in a data center there. He was utterly amazed to see data center employees simply dropping what they were doing and leave work at 5pm sharp. My coworker needed help from them to set up something but had to wait.
Hospitals, powerplants, chemical plant, generally any large installation have been dealing with critical issues during off-hours for centuries. The solution is an on-call rota. Labour law knows about this, and so do the unions.
Actually, the on-call rota is one of the things I ask about in interviews. If the interviewer doesn't know what to say or says they don't have one it's a showstopper. Operations are going to be a horrible mess, and it's not a place anyone would like to work at.
How is this possibly beneficial? My dealing with email after 6PM often saves me time/effort the next day, and if anyone is truly bothered by it they could...not check their emails after 6. I've also put out a few fires and helped a few people putting out their own fires via email...and was much happier doing it by email than by having someone reach me through other methods (calling or texting).
If nothing else, this seems like a clear intrusion of the government into things that don't affect them—if someone wants to read or send email at a given time of day, that should be their prerogative.
It's about promoting a healthy work life balance. It's doubtful there will be enforcement if you choose to read e-mails after 6pm. However, now, there is no way a company can keep you on the tether around the clock. It's a positive development for the rights of the workers.
I heard from a lawyer friend who works in a high profile law firm. He told me a partner emailed an associate a question late in the evening (like 9 or 10pm, maybe even on Fri night) and didn't hear back a reply that same night.
The partner blasted an email to all in the firm publicly flogging the associate lawyer the next day...
Considering lawyers in a law firm are not in a union, I guess such 'ban' on email won't be happening anytime soon...
Our reaction to this news is even more interesting than the fake news itself. Professional communities are shocked and stunned at the stupudity of the fake law. Meanwhile, others celebrate the victory over unfair work hours and lamen the fact that they have to take emails after 6.
In many ways this shows our views on work hours. We think everyone should be free to work hard, but there are clearly some strong feelings about the lack of work-life balance at their jobs.
It's also a little shocking and embarrassing that PC Magazine, New York Magazine, Gawker, Mashable, and more have picked up the story with no fact checking.
This post manages a trifecta: it's blogspam, a dupe, and bullshit.
All: please don't post stories like this to Hacker News. You've read the article, the rest of us haven't, and moderators can't read them all. It's your responsibility to make sure that it isn't something like this. Please do your due diligence and optimize for signal/noise ratio.
Also, when a site is ripping off another source, please post that source instead.
20 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 57.0 ms ] threadNo, France did not just ban work emails after 6pm.
I still wonder how critical outages will be handled in the tech world. E.g. Google/FB Fr faces operational issues or even worse will they shut down their nuclear plants too @ 6 ?
I wonder why the down-votes ?
Actually, the on-call rota is one of the things I ask about in interviews. If the interviewer doesn't know what to say or says they don't have one it's a showstopper. Operations are going to be a horrible mess, and it's not a place anyone would like to work at.
If nothing else, this seems like a clear intrusion of the government into things that don't affect them—if someone wants to read or send email at a given time of day, that should be their prerogative.
If the company requires more than what can be done in a 40-hour work week, it should hire more employees.
Here's the link to the document, which is an agreement between a coalition of employers and some French unions:
http://www.slideshare.net/lesechos2/syntec-avenantforfaitjou...
The partner blasted an email to all in the firm publicly flogging the associate lawyer the next day...
Considering lawyers in a law firm are not in a union, I guess such 'ban' on email won't be happening anytime soon...
In many ways this shows our views on work hours. We think everyone should be free to work hard, but there are clearly some strong feelings about the lack of work-life balance at their jobs.
It's also a little shocking and embarrassing that PC Magazine, New York Magazine, Gawker, Mashable, and more have picked up the story with no fact checking.
https://news.google.com/news?ncl=dLcjtixHZSBGZCM1daT3NKs7VJ5...
All: please don't post stories like this to Hacker News. You've read the article, the rest of us haven't, and moderators can't read them all. It's your responsibility to make sure that it isn't something like this. Please do your due diligence and optimize for signal/noise ratio.
Also, when a site is ripping off another source, please post that source instead.