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Should you have to respond to that work email on Sunday afternoon, when you're on the back nine scrambling for par? Or how about that missive from the boss on Tuesday night, when you're reading your kids a bedtime story?
In the electronic age, work has become 24/7/365. You're never out of touch. You're always reachable by text and email -- and you're phone doesn't even have a busy signal.
Now, a local lawmaker in New York wants to change all that.
Brooklyn City Councilman Rafael Espinal in March introduced a bill to the council that would make it illegal for companies to force employees to respond to emails and texts after working hours.
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I thought maybe it was an April Fool's joke, but no...
The proposed law would set up a system wherein workers could make anonymous complaints against their companies for emailing after hours. The city would check out the claim, and if the company were found to be breaking the law would fine the company $500 for the first infraction, $750 for the second and $1,000 for each infraction thereafter. The employee would also be entitled to $250 in compensation from the company in addition to compensation based on the amount of time they spent emailing in accordance with their salary.
Apparently they passed something like this in France, and he thought it was a good idea.
Frankly, this would be a welcome respite from work.
I loathe how much work has come to dominate our lives. There is no escaping it. My time off should be exactly that-- time off. I want to spend time with my spouse. I want to enjoy this life I supposedly worked to obtain, only to have it constantly denied by this cancerous work culture.
This also amounts to working for free, and it substantially lowers the value of labor. Why the hell should I be required to answer work emails in my off time? Why am I supposed to work for free?
I understand it. I really do. Americans love work and emails precisely because they would rather be anywhere but at home, sitting across the dinner table from a spouse they lost interest in ten years ago, and with whom they no longer have the ability to communicate.
Work is a brand, and instead of giving me money, they want me to work for free in exchange for feeling valued by my employer. **** that. I don't need that nonsense, I do not require validation, and if you want my offtime to turn into work, I am going to bill you for it.
if you dont like after hour e-mails, negotiate it into your pay, don't take the job or open your own business and run it how you like.
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