Annoyed by off-hour work emails? They may soon be illegal in Germany.
High-productivity Germany already bans contact with employees during holidays. Trying to get in touch with workers outside of business hours may soon be verboten too.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (r.) and her husband Joachim Sauer hike on their annual summer vacation in the northern Italian Alpine mountain resort of Sulden in South Tyrol, in August 2013.
Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters/File
Bilbao, Spain
Labor Day represents the last precious day of summer before getting back to the grind. But that assumes we ever left the grind in the first place.
For many in the US, the ubiquity of email and other forms of e-communication means we're never really off the job 鈥� and we'll respond to emails from coworkers and bosses at even the most off of hours. How many Americans are even working today, despite it being a national holiday to celebrate the social achievements of the US worker movement?
You might not even consider opening your inbox it if you were German. Despite their reputation as zealots of productivity and industriousness, Germans enjoy a much better work-life balance than their American counterparts.
And now Germany鈥檚 labor minister, Andrea Nahles, is considering new 鈥渁nti-stress鈥� legislation, which could outside of work hours, reports the Guardian. She told the local press last week: 鈥淭here is an undeniable relationship between constant availability and the increase of mental illness.鈥�
It鈥檚 already illegal in Germany to contact staff on holidays 鈥� like Labor Day 鈥� and the move announced by the labor minister follows the path blazed by the private sector. Daimler, for example, made news in early August 鈥� at the height of vacation season 鈥� by offering a program to employees called 鈥淢ail on Holiday鈥� that when they are on vacation.
鈥淭he idea behind it is to give people a break and let them rest,鈥� Daimler spokesman Oliver Wihofszki told Time magazine. 鈥淭hen they can come back to work with a fresh spirit.鈥澛�
When a similar idea was floated in France among a federation of employees and unions, it led to misleading headlines about the French banning emails after 6 p.m. () and mockery in the foreign press. One reader of the Times of London : 鈥淭he French really do appear to be keen on pressing the self destruct button. What business would want to locate in France?鈥�
But even if the Germans are the first to lambast France鈥檚 35-hour work week, their ideas about out-of-office access seem to have resonated 鈥� not in mockery of German 鈥渓aziness鈥� but approval of a certain humanity. In a piece in the German English daily The Local, one writer and blasted the 鈥淎merican way鈥� with tongue in cheek. 鈥淥ne day we'll figure out the key to the uniquely American workplace secrets where massive amounts of overtime=work ethic and taking vacation=slacker. Then and only then will we reach our true potential.鈥澛�
And Clive Thompson opines in The New York Times that the American workforce from the German trend toward limits.
Workers don鈥檛 even take a break during dinner 鈥� where, other research shows, fully聽聽check work email 鈥渞outinely,鈥� peeking at the phone under the table. Half check it in bed in the morning.聽 What agonizes workers is the expectation that they鈥檒l reply instantly to a colleague or boss, no matter how ungodly the hour. Hence the endless, neurotic checking, and the dread of getting in trouble for ignoring something.
He asks: 鈥淚f this can happen in precision-mad, high-productivity Germany, could it happen in the United States? Absolutely. It not only could, but it should.鈥�