French Legislation Gives You Right to Stay Offline After Leaving Work

If you've ever had to discuss working matters by email or by phone two hours before midnight, you know what it's like: even though you left the office hours ago, somehow you're still at work. Well, from now on, if your boss decides to write you an email, you are legally allowed to ignore it until working hours the next day. At least, if you live in France.

A new amendment, already dubbed the "right to disconnect," has been introduced into a set of labor legislation reforms by French Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri. This amendment requires all French companies with more than 50 employees to draw up policies that would set hours when no business-related emails may be sent or replied to — which would typically be evening and weekend hours.

According to French government officials, this measure has been taken to reduce work-related stress leaking into people's personal time, leading to psychological burnout.

"Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash, like a dog," Benoit Hamon, Socialist member of Parliament and former French education minister, told reporters earlier in May. "The texts, the messages, the emails: They colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down."

"At home the workspace can be the kitchen or the bathroom or the bedroom," says Linh Le, a partner at Elia management consultants in Paris. "You're at home but you're not at home, and that poses a real threat to relationships."

It goes without saying that the move has sparked its own share of criticism. Some critics of the new legislation said this will make French companies lose their edge against companies from other countries where such legislation does not exist. Of course, long workdays and overtime is not necessarily a boon to competitiveness, as it may very well be merely an indicator of bad management or inefficient processes inside the company.

Others, like the CEO of Paris-based online marketplace PriceMinister Olivier Mathiot, say that such changes don't necessarily require legislation and could be solved through education.

Interestingly, this amendment was the only one that was not met with wide public criticism, while all other points of the new law, which aimed to ease France's tight labor legislation and lower standards of labour protection, sparked mass protests in Paris and other cities earlier in September. The proposals were reportedly so unpopular even within President Francois Hollande's own Socialist Party that the government was forced to approve the law without a vote.