Want the legal right to ignore your boss outside working hours? Learn from the French; The Guardian, August 23, 2024

 Alexander Hurst, The Guardian; Want the legal right to ignore your boss outside working hours? Learn from the French

"Every August, the same set of transatlantic memes about work and holiday circulate on social media. The European is depicted as out of the office with a strict attitude towards switching off and not responding to clients (“I’m away camping for the summer – please contact me as of 2 September”) while for the American there is no such luxury (“I’m in the hospital – I’m so so sorry for the 30-minute delay in getting back to you!”)...

Since 2017, French labour law has included the “right to disconnect” – a measure the UK government is now also considering. The law, which applies to companies with more than 50 workers, obliges businesses to clearly define normal working hours and set out policies around work communications negotiated with employees, andallows workers to be unreachable, or to not reply, when work is over. Other European countries, including Belgium, Spain and Italy, have since followed suit.

Sarah Wachter, communications manager at a Paris-based fintech company, says that at her workplace “there is so much encouragement not to respond after hours”, which she attributes to “a combination of knowing it’s the law and knowing that people support it. I feel 100% in my rights to disconnect every weekend, in the evenings, when I’m sick, on vacation. I feel no pressure to answer my emails or other work communications.”

In contrast, Sabina, a 29-year-old American currently working remotely from Paris, told me that she was seeking a transfer to her company’s European office – in part because she was fed up with the expectation that she would always be available."

Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours; Reuters, August 26, 2024

Lewis Jackson, Reuters; Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

"Is your boss texting you on the weekend? Work email pinging long after you've left for home?

Australian employees can now ignore those and other intrusions into home life thanks to a new "right to disconnect" law designed to curb the creep of work emails and calls into personal lives.

The new rule, which came into force on Monday, means employees, in most cases, cannot be punished for refusing to read or respond to contacts from their employers outside work hours."

Leading from the Middle Insight and Advice for Department Chairs; The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1, 2022

 The Chronicle of Higher Education; 

Leading from the Middle

Insight and Advice for Department Chairs

What’s keeping HR up at night? The Great Resignation and much more; Human Resource Executive, January 24, 2022

Kathryn Mayer, Human Resource Executive; What’s keeping HR up at night? The Great Resignation and much more

"All the turmoil of recent years has employees re-evaluating their lives and work,” Jezior says, explaining that more than half of the workforce says the pandemic has them reevaluating their priorities and a third say it’s causing them to consider changing careers.

Furthermore, burnout and other stresses have soared as a result of COVID-19 and its associated challenges, with employees working longer hours, taking less time off, forgoing vacations and dealing with a loss of work-life balance as boundaries blur when they are working remotely.

“The pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Jezior says. “Employee burnout was simmering long before the pandemic, and now it’s boiled over. [More than half] of working Americans say they are burnt out at work, and that’s just an unsustainable situation for employers who want to keep their workers. Also, employees now have more leverage on salary and benefits, and they often are willing to go to the highest bidder.”"

Working 9 to 5? 'Out of Office' author says maybe it's time to rethink that; NPR, Fresh Air, December 13, 2021

Terry Gross, NPR, Fresh Air; Working 9 to 5? 'Out of Office' author says maybe it's time to rethink that

"In the new book Out of Office, Petersen and her partner and co-author, Charlie Warzel, make the case that the pandemic has created a rare opportunity to rethink the shape of work life — including the 9-to-5 workday. 

"The status quo of us being in offices from a certain time to a certain time every day ... [is] very arbitrary," Petersen says. "It's based on rhythms that are no longer ours. It's based on an understanding that there is a caretaker at home for most families in the United States, and that's not necessarily the case."

Now, as workplaces begin to reopen, it's a good time to revisit what she calls "arbitrary understandings of how many hours your butt should be in a chair in the office." After all, she says, "You don't need to be in an office to answer emails.""

In Praise of the 5-Hour Workday, and Other ‘Radical’ Ideas; The New York Times, November 6, 2019

Cal Newport, The New York Times; In Praise of the 5-Hour Workday, and Other ‘Radical’ Ideas

Sick of round-the-clock work emails and Slack messages? Here’s some hope.

"This is why I am heartened to see stories like that of Mr. Rheingans’s short workday and, as was reported this week, Microsoft Japan’s experiments with a four-day week during the summer (which increased its productivity by 40 percent, according to the company). It’s not yet clear that these innovations are exactly the right way to run technology companies, or whether they can scale to other business contexts. But what is right in this case is the exploratory mind-set that led to these experiments in the first place. If like many digital knowledge workers, you’re exhausted by endless work and flooded inboxes, the good news is that better and more sustainable ways of producing valuable output with your brain might be coming — if we can find enough visionaries willing to try out “radical” new ideas about how best to get things done."

Christopher Bailey Takes a Final Walk Down the Burberry Runway; New York Times, February 17, 2018

Elizabeth Paton, New York Times; Christopher Bailey Takes a Final Walk Down the Burberry Runway

"“Trying to be both a C.E.O. and creative director backfired for Christopher Bailey,” said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas. “Quite simply, he took on too much.” Josie Cox, the business editor at The Independent, a London newspaper, was equally blunt in a recent article about Mr. Bailey’s departure: “He became C.E.O. and couldn’t quite hack it.”...

“Burberry was clearly at the start of a new chapter. Would I, could I, commit to another five or 10 years there, and keep doing what I know in a world that is so familiar? Or do I explore another way of life, and at the same time spend some more time with my husband, Simon, and my two beautiful little girls?” (Mr. Bailey married the British actor Simon Woods in 2012. The two have two daughters, Iris, 3½, and Nell, 2.)...

“Whatever he touches will turn to gold,” Ms. Campbell added. “It isn’t just because he is a visionary. It is because unlike many people in this business, he is so decent. He treats everyone from a C.E.O. or celebrity to an intern with a basic level of kindness and respect. He only deserves the best.”"