No email after hours – a relief or a worry?
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Many mobile workers are more productive when able to work off-hours. Not in Brazil.
Email off the clock constitutes overtime — in Brazil
If you are a Brazilian citizen and answer an email from your employer after your work day is over, you’re eligible for overtime pay, according to an amendment added and approved to the country’s labor code and approved.
This issue has come up in the US, but seems to depend on the company, industry and mindset.
In our last Mobile Workforce Report, we found that 91 percent of mobile workers use their smartphones for work, (compared to 69 percent in 2010) and 75 percent worked more hours because of the increased flexibility in when and where they could work.
Before the new year, there was this story: Volkswagen turns off Blackberry email after work hours.
Volkswagen agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of its German employees when they are off-shift. The carmaker confirmed it made the move earlier this year following complaints that staff’s work and home lives were becoming blurred. There were other companies as well that banned emails at times, acknowledging that there is growing awareness of the issue.
Our recent “Well-being of the Mobile Workforce Report” states that many mobile workers are happier and more productive in a flexible working situation (wht the ability to “re-charge”), however it also illuminates that there is a ‘Dark Side’ to being able to work, and be contacted ‘anytime, anywhere’ from the increased demands, lower control and higher fatigue that employees can experience.
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I definitely agree! Sometimes the technology needs to move aside. I guess it then depends on how “addicted” someone is to their device or the expectations of their boss.
Surely one can (and does) choose to ignore work emails out of hours.