widthAfter Poland entered a strict lockdown in March last year, Natalia Zurowska had almost no time to clean her desk at work. “I went in and got my laptop, and then I left,” said the 36-year-old office manager of a graphic design company in Warsaw at the time. “I have worked in the office for 10 years. So this is a new thing, working from home. But from the first day, I knew I didn’t like it.”
At first, Zurowska completed her work in different areas of her home to avoid her discomfort. “I’m at my desk one day, one day on the sofa, one day in the bedroom,” Zurowska said. “But as the blockade went on — one week, two weeks, three weeks — I kept in touch. When I was on break, my notifications were always open. When I closed my laptop at the end of the day, I received a notification on my phone. This is disturbing.”
Zurowska is a typical representative of millions of people in Europe who were suddenly forced to work remotely when the pandemic hit. I Studies have shown that the number of people entering full-time WFH mode has soared from 5% in 2019 to nearly 40% last spring. As of July, in a survey conducted by Eurofound, an EU agency, 48% of respondents said that they work all or part of them from home. In Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus and Italy, more than half of people work from home.
This earth-shaking change in office life has brought about another social change, which has blurred the boundary between work and life, beyond recognition. Digital technology has eroded the differences of many people, but Covid has brought the always-on culture to a climax. Eurofound Research Manager Tina Weber said: “ICT-based mobile work has been in development for ten years. “But this pandemic has changed drastically.It completely changed the nature of Europe works. “
In addition to comfortable clothes, WFH also has obvious advantages, including greater workday flexibility, less commuting time and quality of life outside of the city. But the downside is not only Zoom fatigue: Many people find that they work harder and harder and work longer and longer.A Harvard Learn Analyzing the e-mails and meetings of 3.1 million people in 16 cities around the world, it was found that remote employees worked 48.5 minutes more every day.European Foundation data It shows that far from being “lazy at home”, those remote workers are twice as likely as office workers to work more than 48 hours per week in the EU. Nearly one-third of remote troops work in their free time several times a week—compared to less than 5% of office workers who work in their free time.More the study A report released this month found that in the United Kingdom, Austria, Canada, and the United States, employees working from home use computers for two more hours a day.
Professor Anna Cox, an expert on computing and work-life balance at University College London, said that the deterioration of work-life balance is mainly due to stress and insecurity. Employer use tracking software“It makes employees feel that they are Seen Every minute,” she said. “They feel they want to be on standby at any time. It has such a big impact on workers, especially those who are not senior managers. “
The loss of clear work and life boundaries has far-reaching consequences, especially for women Bear the brunt of child care and housework. Activists pointed out the study Show increasing anxiety, depression, Interrupted sleep mode As well as the burnout of remote workers, they believe that all of this is partly the result of checking emails, keeping devices on, and responding to messages after get off work. They say that employment laws need to keep up with changing realities.
“We often see the management of fear,” said Deputy Secretary-General Esther Lynch. European Federation of Trade Unions (ETUC), representing 45 million workers in 38 European countries. “Employers need to have clear obligations to ensure that employees have the right to cut off contact with the outside world.”
Although the EU Working hours instructionsIntroduced in 2003, it stipulates the minimum rest time per day and week. Work-life balance is one of the 20 principles. Pillars of European Social RightsAccording to EU law, people who work digitally do not have the right to shut down outside of working hours.
Workers’ “Great Victory”
But the movement to legally protect leisure time is making progress.The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of passing last month Resolution Call on the European Commission to propose a law that allows those who work digitally to disconnect outside working hours.
“This is a huge victory for European workers,” said Alex Agius Saliba, a Maltese socialist politician who proposed non-binding measures. “As a result, actions have been taken to protect the mental health, well-being and private lives of workers. I hope it will set a precedent in the world.”
The European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit (Nicolas Schmit) told the Guardian that the size of the yes vote indicated “real concerns”.
Proponents of reform say that lessons can be learned from France. France imposed a 35-hour work week limit on companies with more than 20 employees. Twenty years have passed, and the limit was later extended to smaller companies.This resulted in a ruling In 2004, the Supreme Court of France’s Supreme Court rejected an ambulance company’s decision to dismiss a driver who did not answer private calls outside of working hours.
French pioneers subsequently tested radical methods, such as the days when camera manufacturer Canon in 2010 and food company Sodexo in 2013 tried not to send emails. These were later abandoned. Others have found a happier medium to take less extreme measures-the banking group BNP Paribas and internet provider Orange introduced regulations prohibiting contact with employees on weekends, evenings, or holidays in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The regulations are still valid today.
In 2017, the then Minister of Labor, Myriam El Khomri, worried about information overload (or information obesity as she referred to) introduced a law requiring companies with more than 50 employees to formulate articles of association that clearly stipulate that employees should not send or respond to emails— —In other words, this is the world’s first “right to disconnect” law.
JLO Group It is a French company that supports the employment of disabled workers. In 2015, it shut down the Internet server and mobile connection between 7pm and 7am. “It is very effective,” said Jérôme Bouchet, Director of Innovation and Services. “But it’s also very restrictive.”
The company relaxed its practices in 2019, and employees will now receive email reminders emphasizing that they do not need to get a response outside of working hours. “The lighter system is now working well. It gives us flexibility,” Bouchet said. “But I think it’s just because we first conveyed the message with stricter policies and changed the workplace culture-this is very important.”
Critics say that French legislation only requires companies to negotiate with employee representatives every year and sign the charter if there is a disagreement — and such agreements are usually not binding. “Law has always been a good thing,” said Caroline Sauvajol-Rialland, a professor at the School of Political Sciences in Paris and author of the book. Information obesity“France became the first country in Europe to establish the right to disconnect rules. But the law is too lax, and many companies are ambivalent about this.”
recent Polls The Confederation of French Trade Unions found out of 34,000 workers that 78% of them work for companies that have not properly implemented the right to disconnect, 24% have noticed an increase in their workload during the pandemic, and 30% are suffering from information overload . “This is a huge challenge Rondi Manche We have to solve this problem,” Sauvajol-Rialland said, referring to a French hybrid word that means turning Sunday into Monday.
French Ministry of Labor confirms concerns Publish The March guidance reiterated that “the distinction between working hours and leisure time must be clear, and employees’ right to disconnect must be guaranteed.”
Zurowska moved from Poland to France in July and started working in the sales department of a paint company in Marseille. The work is divided into home and office. Now there are fewer complaints. I find France is very suitable for balancing work and life,” she said. “Here, the lunch break is sacred. There must be a war or an earthquake to stop it. And I found that no one texted me or emailed me outside of working hours. “
Other European countries include Spain and Italy follow French example. Ireland with Luxembourg Legislation is in progress to protect remote workers.In Germany, which has no legislation but is considered to have forward-looking policies at the company level, large companies such as Volkswagen Email server connection In the evening and on weekends.
A level playing field for the pandemic
The pandemic may have exacerbated the ongoing pressure, but activists also see it as an opportunity to level the playing field across the EU. “The French example is very useful and a good case study,” said Maltese MEP Saliba. “But we need to implement minimum requirements across Europe-if member states want to, they can go further.”
This will not be smooth sailing.Business groups lobbied hard and won the European Parliament amendment Resolution Before any EU directive comes into effect, the company has up to three years to implement voluntary agreements with social partners. Schmidt said that when a “quick response” is required, it takes a long time to wait.
Some employers think that regulation is too much. “We don’t think it is legally necessary,” said Markus J Beyrer, Director General of BusinessEurope. “The European Union has enacted legislation to protect working hours and the health and safety of the workplace.”
Beyrer does not believe in the negative effects of remote work. He said: “Do people really work more? I heard from many people that they have more time to be alone and can better balance their work and life.”
Labor experts also warned that while any EU legislation must be implemented, it must also be flexible enough to take into account the needs of freelancers and workers who have parenting responsibilities and do not want to return to the traditional nine-to-five.
“We must be cautious about our tasks,” said Lynch of ETUC. “Maybe parents want to pick up their children from school, have family time, and then work later in the evening-so we can’t set a fixed time. The same goes for freelancers, who have one of the most unsafe forms of work. Employers There must be a responsibility to convey the message that they will not be discriminated against because of rest.”
For Grig Richters, 33, who worked in communications in Germany, such protection was hard-won. During the pandemic last year, he became a freelancer and fell into a state of panic to ensure that he got enough work to pay his bills.
“Sometimes my email will explode at midnight,” Richters said. “Some of my clients throw things at you at the last minute. Some, especially the small team who knows me, may even contact me about work on Facebook or Instagram. But if you turn it off, people may think you are lazy . It’s so difficult. Now it feels like remote work is very unsupervised.”
