German Government May Say 'Nein' To After Work Emails

[marmar]

(NPR) All of us are familiar with the sound a smartphone makes when an email or text has arrived. Our somewhat Pavlovian response is to pick up the device, see who the message is from and read it.

In Germany, a growing number of these emails come from the boss contacting employees after work. That's not healthy, say experts on work-related stress, including psychologist Gerdamarie Schmitz in Berlin, who is feeling the technological encroachment herself.

"This horrible phone I have with me, and so I get emails," she says. "I check them because I can check them, and I get that What's App message from my clients. So of course there's also, after hours, a constant stress that has not been there before, absolutely."

And it also crosses a sacrosanct line in Germany between work and leisure, says Hanns Pauli, who is the health and safety expert for the Federation of German Trade Unions. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/01/366806938/german-government-may-say-nein-to-work-emails-after-six

[Bonx]

1. So many of my colleagues have given in to this

But I think many actually enjoy it in a perverse way. People want to feel needed/important.