French workers now have legal right

Now French workers have the legal right to totally ignore work emails outside of working hours, according to a new law that will go into effect with the beginning of the new year.

Companies with more than 50 employees must now establish defined hours of when staff are banned from sending or answering work-related emails.

This is part of a bunch of new labor laws introduced in May to prevent employees from essentially working off-the-clock.

“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” Member of Parliament Benoit Hamon told the BBC.

“Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash – like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails – they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down,” he said.