SBS French reports, as of January 1st, workers have the legal right to ignore emails sent out of hours, as companies with over 50 employees will have to justify sending email outside of work hours.
Workplace laws are much tighter in France than in Australia. In France, the work week is 35 hours and most workers have five or six weeks of holidays a year. In Australia, the work week is 38 hours and workers usually have four weeks of holidays a year.
In 2016, an OECD study found that work-life balance in Australia ranked below the average across developed countries.
As New Daily reports, a study by Professor Barbara Pocock, from the University of South Australia’s Centre for Work and Life, and Natalie Skinner in 2013, found that almost half of Australian workers checked their emails outside work, particularly managers and professionals.
SBS The Feed also reports how work emails is ruining our life. An estimate suggests that 81% of office workers currently check work emails outside work hours. 55% will check after 11pm.
For both manager/employers and employees, better management of your emails helps to improve your work efficiency and reduce interruption to your life after work.
How to manage my emails ?
There are a lot articles about how to better manage your emails that is worth of reading. In summary, they almost come down to below suggestions:
1.Organize your emails:
- Use folder, labels and flags to manage your emails. You can categorize emails by priorities and actions required, for example, "Urgent","Action Items", "Waiting", "Archives" and etc.
- Learn about "Rules" setting of your email program so that emails can go to the right place as they come in.
- Review and clean your emails regularly.
2. Process your emails:
- Set an uninterrupted time slot to check and process your emails daily;- After reading emails, take actions immediately: Reply, Forward, Defer, or Delete.
- Unsubscribe unneeded emails
3. Write emails:
- Consider other communications and only send emails when you have to;- Send precise and valuable emails to reduce email exchange.
- Consider to use template and add "no need for reply" when necessary.
How to contact my stuff and colleagues after hours?
Many career driven managers and hard working employers think their staff feel the same passion as they do for work. They certainly need to think again and learn to be more polite and tactical when they ask for help after hours.
A good read from Sydney Morning Herald lists “Ten rules for contacting staff after hours”. The main points include:
- Set boundaries about when and how you can contact your stuff from the beginning;
- Accept the fact that it is normal if they are not available.
- Only call for emergency. Don't call after 9pm.
- Respect your employee's family members and always show your appreciations.
- Comply with laws and regulations.
- Review workflow and avoid after-hours emergencies
