I want this - right to disconnect

[B. de Corbin]

From France:

Weekend Work Emails Are Now Illegal In France

I'm sure there are those who think this is liberal crap for crybaby sissies, but, if an employer forces employees into de facto slavery, the gooberment needs to do something real to prevent it.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I know when I worked for the school system in routing myself and the other's in the office used to get quite a few "Weekend" hot items that we had to deal with. Sometimes it might be getting a driver or something in place for a Monday run other times the person sending always though it immediate though we didn't specifically agree.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I know when I worked for the school system in routing myself and the other's in the office used to get quite a few "Weekend" hot items that we had to deal with. Sometimes it might be getting a driver or something in place for a Monday run other times the person sending always though it immediate though we didn't specifically agree.

It's not bad where I work, except from parents who sometimes believe that I work for them, so they get to dictate the times and conditions of my employment. My contract would like to politely disagree with them.

However, I know there are many work places where employees are, essentially, on 24 hour call because of text messages and cell phones.

[anunitu]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I think this could apply to "Exempt" employees(executives) because they contract for a salary,Not an hourly wage. An hourly employee if called on off work should get overtime and in my personal mind it should be double time(would make it less likely as money talks) The idea that the "Company" and in B. De.'s case Parents can just break into your off time and demand you do things.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I think for us it was sort of 75 - 25 in that 75 percent we didn't mind and 25 we did. It's like many times our mechanics would be on call and would provide assistance to some school bus from another district that broke down in our area. Some times Virginia school buses other times border state school buses that had field trips or sporting events in our area.

Parent wise we didn't really get that accept during the school week. Then it was the "You need to change this because I'm special!" routines. Things like "Sorry my kid overslept so you need to bring the bus back for them" then get crazy on the phone when we'd say no the bus would be behind upwards of an hour doing that. That or the I want my child to go to another stop outside their school district and get upset when we couldn't or wouldn't make it happen. People talk about citizen outrage when dealing with public service jobs in retail and such, but it really gets crazy when its schools and such.

[anunitu]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

This kind of gets to me. I grew up in the city,and we did not HAVE school buses. I did Grammar school at a school that was inside the projects,BUT entering junior high school,it was find a way to school(mainly city buses) they did do a token(bus token) thing where they provided them,but you had to ride the public buses. I after a bit got a bike to get to school. Remember this was Oakland,California..and riding the bus could be a bit dicy. So,it makes me not feel to much sorry for those parents.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

School buses can be a dicey issue. For some school districts the actual district runs and maintains all their school buses, cars, vans, etc. For other's it's all subcontracted out and they have little to no actual say in things. Then of course there are those that make no effort at all regarding transportation and its up to the parents to get their child / children to the appropriate school. The school system I worked for the county purchased and maintained the whole fleet of buses and was responsible for hiring, training and paying of drivers, aides, etc. So in some capacity they had to follow Department of transportation requirements regarding physicals and such along with class of license needed. Yet they never had to go to the degree that the state demanded for other over size vehicles and the requirements for.

[Azvanna]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I remember reading something like this a little while back and being thankful that all the jobs I've had require nothing of me once I clock off!! I'm not highly paid, but tbh I'd rather my down time! I've been a disability support worker, pizza delivery chick, receptionist, teacher aide and now allied health assistant. They are all entry level jobs, but I'm too obsessed with rec. time to chase a demanding career!

Anyway I'm really glad legislation like this is in put in place to protect workers. Didn't we discuss earlier that the longer hours corporations make people work, the less productive they become? I think either Danie or Mrs P said it and linked a study in a previous thread...

[monsno_leedra]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I do wonder as was mentioned regarding contracted employee's versus hourly employee's? It's like I was contracted so was given a flat yearly wage and no set hours per week or pay per hour type issues. Figure it was your paid and under a contract for 365 days a year. Yet our hourly people or short contracts feel under a different mandate as they usually had x number of formal days, x number of training days and once that was hit they were basically overtime or you didn't touch them.

Near the end though for my area they started to hold real close to 40 hour work week and once you started to get close to it you got told to "Go Home" to avoid getting overtime. Not that we ever got paid overtime pay we simply accrued comp days

[anunitu]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I at times made more in OT than I did in straight time(we did a LOT of OT)..every Saturday a month(every month) and 2 hours OT a day for a week when on deadline(so 32 hours OT for the Saturdays,and 10 hours OT for that one week a month.so an extra week at OT rates.(the executives hated that we pulled in more than they did,and at times with less hours)

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

This kind of thing makes me glad I'm the age I am. When I started working, there were no cell phones or even cordless ones, and no answering machines or call waiting. So no one could reach you if you didn't want to be reached. I'm a very "by the book" person - I always made sure I was on time or early to work, I focused and did my job, and then was just as focused on going home on time.

[DanieMarie]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

I remember reading something like this a little while back and being thankful that all the jobs I've had require nothing of me once I clock off!! I'm not highly paid, but tbh I'd rather my down time! I've been a disability support worker, pizza delivery chick, receptionist, teacher aide and now allied health assistant. They are all entry level jobs, but I'm too obsessed with rec. time to chase a demanding career!

Anyway I'm really glad legislation like this is in put in place to protect workers. Didn't we discuss earlier that the longer hours corporations make people work, the less productive they become? I think either Danie or Mrs P said it and linked a study in a previous thread...

Yeah, I'm sure I've discussed it before.

Anyway, I hope France passes it! We tried this a couple of years ago but it didn't quite make it through into law. The logic behind it was that after-hours emails are contributing to burnout and eroding the country's high productivity. Still, even though it never became a law, it's something more people are conscious of now, and a lot of people leave their work at work.

- - - Updated - - -

I do wonder as was mentioned regarding contracted employee's versus hourly employee's? It's like I was contracted so was given a flat yearly wage and no set hours per week or pay per hour type issues. Figure it was your paid and under a contract for 365 days a year. Yet our hourly people or short contracts feel under a different mandate as they usually had x number of formal days, x number of training days and once that was hit they were basically overtime or you didn't touch them.

Near the end though for my area they started to hold real close to 40 hour work week and once you started to get close to it you got told to "Go Home" to avoid getting overtime. Not that we ever got paid overtime pay we simply accrued comp days

I don't know about there, but that's not how it works in Europe. If you have a monthly or annual salary (ie not hourly), that is NOT for 365 days a year. It's for a standard 35-40 hour work week (more of a social contract than a law on that one), at least one day off per week (this one is law in the EU), holiday time (law in Germany), sick days, etc. Plus, the European Working Time Directive technically limits working hours to 48 hours per week on average. That one gets kind of foggy and is poorly observed in a lot of countries, but generally it helps. In my country, the law is that all jobs have to have a contract number of hours per week, and if you exceed them, you either get to work fewer hours at some point (some people save these up to take insane amounts of holiday time) or they have to pay you overtime.

Anyway, the point is, work is not a 365 day a week deal here. Your employer doesn't own you and you're entitled to a life once you leave.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: I want this - right to disconnect

.. I don't know about there, but that's not how it works in Europe. If you have a monthly or annual salary (ie not hourly), that is NOT for 365 days a year. It's for a standard 35-40 hour work week (more of a social contract than a law on that one), at least one day off per week (this one is law in the EU), holiday time (law in Germany), sick days, etc. Plus, the European Working Time Directive technically limits working hours to 48 hours per week on average. That one gets kind of foggy and is poorly observed in a lot of countries, but generally it helps. In my country, the law is that all jobs have to have a contract number of hours per week, and if you exceed them, you either get to work fewer hours at some point (some people save these up to take insane amounts of holiday time) or they have to pay you overtime.

Anyway, the point is, work is not a 365 day a week deal here. Your employer doesn't own you and you're entitled to a life once you leave.

We don't work 365 per say it was just a way of saying we were contracted for the full year. Yet the premise was that we could get called in as it was seen as a condition of employment. Unlike bus drivers for instance who were only contracted for actual school days and a couple of training days for some while others were contracted basically for x number of hours per day because they didn't have aide assignments in the school itself to give them more time.

So you couldn't really say a standard 40 hour week though on average it was a 40 hour work week.