When it comes to enjoying the finer things in life, France seems to have it down. How else to explain this carbonara battle between itself and its cultural rival, Italy? In an attempt to give people more time to argue about which country makes the better pasta, France has codified something that sounds silly, but is also kind of awesome into law: the illegality of checking one’s work email on the weekend.
According to the Huffington Post, the law is referred to as “the right to disconnect” amendment. It bans people who work for a company of 50 or more employees from sending work email after regular work hours. Making this a law might seem excessive, but how many of us check our work email hours after leaving the office? When we’re ready to go to sleep, even. This can lead to workplace burnout, which approximately 1 in 10 people in the workforce will experience, according to a French newspaper.
Here’s how the Minister of National Education described France’s work culture crisis, as quoted by HuffPo from the BBC:
“Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash— like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails — they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”
In season one of Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess asks, “What is a weekend?” (which you can watch in the clip above), showing the modern audience how pampered life is at Downton Abbey. In 2016, the rest of us don’t have that luxury, which is why a law like this may be necessary.
(via Huffington Post)
