For A Healthy Work-Life Balance, Move to France

Pack your bags, we’re moving to Paris.

A new year is a great time to consider change, whether it be big or small. Maybe last year you decided to go to the grocery store instead of eating pizza for dinner; maybe this year you’ll finally sell all your belongings, throw some sweaters in a backpack and move to France. In light of the recently-passed labor law that gives employees the “right to disconnect” from work after-hours, I have packed my bag, stuffed the cat in a carrier and am prepared to live in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

France gives workers ‘right to disconnect’ from office email

In France, one-third of professionals use their work devices outside of work. It’s probably fair to chalk some of the usage to watching movies on a computer, maybe, but regardless of the kind of usage these devices are getting, the French government is concerned with the mental and physical well-being of their workers.

“These measures are designed to ensure respect for rest periods and … balance between work and family and personal life,” the Ministry of Labor said in a statement.

The rule requires companies with 50 or more employees to negotiate new out-of-office email guidelines with staff. Firms have a duty to regulate the use of emails to ensure employees get a break from the office…Some French companies have already put rules in place to bar employees from using their work devices after hours. Some firms even completely shut down their email systems overnight.

This sounds lovely — really, it does! — but thinking about a life lived officially unfettered from my work email and my work obligations after hours is a bit panic-inducing. I appreciate the government’s concern with the health of their employees because that level of care is not present institutionally in the United States. Because of that fact, the scenario that French employees are enjoying occupies a strange mental space for me; if I woke up tomorrow and heard that all work correspondence and emails would be shut down after “working hours,” I would psychically ready myself for the other shoe to drop.

Are there “workaholics” in France? How do they really monitor this? Wouldn’t you think that some enterprising employee with a hankering to answer emails after 5pm would be able to find a way to circumvent this law? What’s the punishment if you get caught sending memos to your staff past work hours? Can they fire you for working?!

Please speculate at will below.

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