We all know the continuing trend of knowledge workers using smart phones, computers, and other electronic devices outside of working time. Most people will agree that this trend cannot be healthy for the individual worker, yet it appears to have a snowballing effect that is just not stopping. Companies are starting to step in to “legislate” the boundaries that we should all be using from a common sense standpoint.
In case you missed it, the French information technology services giant, Atos, took the radical step of banning internal e-mail altogether in 2014. And last month, the maker of Persil washing powder, Hinkel, declared e-mail amnesty between Christmas and New Year.
I have never been a proponent of e-mail bans, whether it is “e-mail free Fridays ,” or drastic measures such as those taken by Atos . With e-mail being one of the most efficient and effective ways to communicate when used properly, we can’t and shouldn’t just shut it down. Instead, we should work towards the effective use of it. Let’s look forward to the upcoming fifth annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week, January 23-27.
Most interesting to me, though, is that Volkswagen in Germany actually set up their servers to stop routing the e-mails to workers 30 minutes before their work start time in 30 minute after their work end time. I am going to be interested to see how this works, and if it can be sustained over time.
What do you think ?
