News & Events

Why You Should REALLY Switch Off From Work When You’re On Holiday

It's deemed such an important topic that France even considered making it illegal. But what's the harm in answering the odd work email in your own time, or when you're on holiday?

Quite a bit, it turns out. As we get busier and busier at work, the crossover between work and life gets more and more blurry. Hell, I'm even writing this article for you on my day off from the day job. 

As usual, the Germans led the way with car giants BMW and Volkswagen imposing limits on the amount of out-of-hours email, while France is considering changing the country’s labour law and ensuring that employees have a “right to disconnect” from their working life if their company employs at least 50 people.

True, employees may sometimes enjoy the flexibility but over time, constant work-related emails will take their toll, emotionally. A mum or dad can be playing with their children one minute, and fielding a complaint or enquiry from a client the next, and switching between the two roles can sometimes be exhausting rather than seamless and can sometimes result in guilt, that you're devoting too much of yourself to one part of your life.

There's also the basic, common-sense idea that if you're responding to an email late at night, or with your toddler in the other arm, there's more chance of a mistake being made than if you were sat at your desk in working hours. Because email's a relatively new conundrum to deal with, the obvious answer isn't readily available and what works for one employee might not for another. Is the emphasis on the employee to stand up for their rights, or the employer to not put them in a difficult situation where they feel they can't say no?

Or could the secret be a change of culture, preventing people being bombarded with irrelevant information for the sake of hitting the 'CC' button? With resources dwindling around us, most of us are forced to do more with less. But one day soon, we might just be able to relax around the pool with that cocktail and not be interrupted by that dreaded email tone.