Right to disconnect

Release · 2016-12-31T23:47:09+00:00

A wonderful idea proposed and soon to be Law in France. The right to ignore the work related communication through email, and other electronic channels. S...

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Typhoon

Gawd, I don't believe there are those so left behind.... did you hire mentally challenged to work under you ?
Sales and marketing is not order taking, only those working smart and willing to learn could survive.
They must be playing you to have you believe that they are dumber than they are, to be able to get away with what they want.
Stupid like a fox ?

Typhoon

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Bill...your first line is spot on seriously. I hate to say it but a couple if them have even come out and said " you know, my elevator doesn't go all the way to the top...". We now only require a GED...and 90% of the applicants don't have one.

Like you said sales and marketing should be out selling. A friend of mine owns a large paper company and he is amazed that our company thinks nothing of having the sales people out for a month driving delivery trucks. He says if someone is out they have a warehouse person make the deliveries. He wants his salespeople out selling.

Makes sense to me...

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Typhoon Makes sense to me...

I'll tell you this, my first job out of school was a door to door marketing /sales. Not selling house hold goods, big copier and desktop computer networking Was given 1/3 of financial district in the City of San Francisco plus 1/3 of the South Bay Industrial Parks. My job was to canvasing the area to visit every businesses to introduce myself to existing and potential customers. This is way before the internet time, getting your name out there is vital to expand the business Dressed up in suits and tie hitting the pavement like the Big Blue sales force ( dark blue preferred and a portfolio folder, wingtip leather shoes ).
Many of my family members thought I would not last 3 months at this job.... I had became one of the top members in the sales team in about a year, simply because I really hit the doors like it was supposed to It was an eye opening experience and I learned a ton of how to deal with people in general. I remembered at the Union Square during lunch hours there were so many beautiful women walking around. Just have to be careful try to identify their gender first. The best experience was cold calling a lingerie manufacturer/designer near the International District, while they were having a showing for their clients. Never seen so many beautiful ladies wearing underwear walking around.

Sixtyfour

I live in France and worked for 35 years for the French Space Agency. I'm still doing part-time consultancy.

When I started working here back in the 70's, we worked from punch-in to punch-out. That was it.
The lunch break, was just that. We usually went to eat as a team. If someone started talking shop at the table, he/she was penalized to pay a bottle of wine.

The official work-week is 35 hours (32 for civil servants). This being said, guys in private companies work 40-50 hour weeks without extra pay.

Nowadays, companies provide laptops and cellphones to employees knowing they will be available 24/7/365. This disrupts family/personal life as there is a subtle and implicit obligation to respond to e-mail and texts. It can, in certain cases, run into harassment.

The law, as many others, will be hard to enforce but, it does exist and it should help protect prime-time with the family.

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Sixtyfour it should help protect prime-time with the family.

Yes, indeed, or the situation will cause consideration when time comes for promotion and such key time in one's career.
I'm favor the Law just went into effect in France, it'll try to give those whom does not want to climb the corporate ladder a chance for a more normal life.

mulegolf

Before I retired, my employer offered me and others in my position across the state a cell phone. Several took them and were constantly harassed by both their employees and their superiors. It was "strongly suggested" that I and others who declined should take one as well but I refused after asking if I took one would I be expected to answer it when away from work. Their response was yes, if I took it I would be expected to answer it whenever I was called. I ended the conversation by offering to take one when they paid me to carry it during off hours. My contract called for me to be paid if I had to come in after work hours so I put in for that pay when, after they called the golf course clubhouse and the clubhouse personnel caught me when I played a hole near it, so I called them on my cell phone. They took up 45 minutes of my time and my 4-some went on without me while I was on the phone. My OT pay for talking them through a problem for 45 minutes was denied. They told me, "If you would have come back to work to solve the problem, you would have been eligible for the pay but since you handled it by phone you were not eligible to be paid." It still would have taken the 45 minutes to solve the problem but I would have also taken me another 45 minutes (each way) for me to drive back to work to handle it. My contract also called for me to have been paid "mileage" for each mile I would have driven to go back to work in this situation but they couldn't see that so from then on, no paid cell phone for me unless I got paid to carry it. If you took one you couldn't make personal calls on it... so you had to carry it and your personal cell phone.

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mulegolf
What kind of idiot would implement that rule for carrying a company cell phone.
They could be liable for the overtime plus penalty.

Typhoon

mulegolf

Christ...sounds like us to some degree.

We used to be suppiled a company cell phone and they would pay the bill. It was one of those "everything" plans so they didn't care about personal use. I didn't have my own phone at the time so this was great. I still called it my "work" phone and told them that. Therefore at night and at 4 am when these guys would call me I would have it on silent and call them back when MY day began.

A few years ago the company in a midst of taking away holidays, 401k match, decided to take away the company issued phones and tell us to get our own phones and you could submit the bill as a "personal liable cell phone". I still submit my whole bill on an "everything" plan and its not questioned.

A few people balked and the company was having a heart attack...pretty funny...they expect everyone to fall in line. I still shut mine off, or if my boss asks me I tell him it went dead etc... hey, they gave up the right to cell phone questions when they made us buy our own. I've had the same one 3 years now. I wont upgrade until its dead.

PA-PLAYA

As with work-related functions, I see no reason to acquire a mobile phone for that purpose exclusively.

But as a parent with kids, who these days in particular, only more and more seem willing to communicate via texting/cellphone exclusively, then obviously there's an entirely different aspect that must be considered. If you're not in that situation, then obviously that doesn't pertain to you.

Landlines will soon be a thing of the past. We might as well accept it, otherwise be on the outside looking in. That's where things are heading, just as computer technology has also made normal correspondence via written letters nearly obsolete. To deny it is just refusing to accept reality of where we are.

I'm inclined to take the good with the bad and stay in touch with my kids. With work, however, it's an entirely different situation and I understand fully the usual grievances. It just comes down to what one is willing to accept and/or sacrifice.

Ack8236

I do not get work e-mails at home, I don't even know where to go to log in other than on a city computer. Apparently some do not quite understand how e-mail works. The "office" will send us important messages in an e-mail, when we are out responding to calls. Then, in between doing our actual job, we have to write a memo explaining why we did not complete an administrative task that was sent in said e-mail. If they call me when off duty, it goes to voice mail, if it is important I return the call. If it is a call-in for an incident, 911 calls me, and I know it is them. I answer that because it is a recording, I then have to call 911 ( on an administrative line) and tell them I am responding.

mulegolf

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16 hours ago

mulegolf
What kind of idiot would implement that rule for carrying a company cell phone.
They could be liable for the overtime plus penalty.

That would be State of Minnesota, MN State Patrol.

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mulegolf

I'm sure this will look bad on your record if you were not pitching in - for free.
No one wants to rock the boat I believe. I did extra efforts all the time when I was younger, been there done that, but that should come out the individual as a pure voluntary gesture, not forced down one's throat. Not cool.
Especially working for the State. Does your State Attorney General knew about the practice ?

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