Recent reports on Geek and Buzzfeed suggest that the French government is cracking down on employers who over-work their staff. The government has already restricted weekly working hours to just 35 hours-a-week; the new development reportedly improves the lives of white collar workers in France.
For example, if you reply or even read a corporate email from your boss, then your superiors will be in trouble! The report suggests this is most harmful to tech companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo who rely on corporate emails for communication.
The new law looks after employee welfare and allows for them to spend more time with their families. Not all employees enjoy taking their work home with them; and it would appear that they are now protected from doing so, thanks in-part to these new restrictions.
It would be interesting to see this new law implemented in other countries. In urban centers of Pakistan like Karachi, some companies are renowned for keeping their employees long after work hours with many of them even having to come-in on weekends.
As one would expect, longer working hours come with their fair share of stress often depriving employees of quality time with their loved ones. A new law like this would spark a revolution in Pakistan. Most people are already spending too much time sitting in-front of a computer screen at work, so doing the same at home can be quite overwhelming.
Certain companies in Pakistan may even be following this rule already (be it unknowingly) by restricting email access to office computers only. Kudos to the French, for bringing about this much needed change in a world where it’s deemed necessary to always ‘stay connected’.