I recently read an article in The Guardian: “French Workers Win Legal Right to Avoid Checking Work Email Out-of-hours” .1 The article presents a new law passed by the French government where employees do not have an obligation to check their emails and phones during non-work hours; however, the exact terms have to be negotiated with the employer. The reason for this law is for the government to protect workers by decreasing employee burnout due to high levels of stress.

When reading this article I remembered talking about the different types of emotions which were discussed in Chapter 2, Perception, Personality and Emotions.2 I believe that a major reason for employee burnout due to calls and emails during out-of-work hours was because of emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance is defined in the textbook by the act of projecting one emotion while simultaneously feeling another one. Interactions related to colleagues or bosses from the office requires the employee to portray certain emotions (part of interpersonal skills) in order to maintain a good relationship. However, often times employees do not feel those emotions during out-of-work hours. This leads to a conflict as the employee tries to suppress the emotions he/she is feeling, which might be anger, and instead portray other emotions successfully. This constant battle can lead to a high employee burnout and thus a high employee turnover. Once again it is important to acknowledge that while it is an important contributor to employee burnout, it is not the only one.

I believe that the new law in France will not be very successful due to two interconnected reasons. First, it is very hard for the government to monitor all companies and assure that the law is being abided. The other reason is the flaw in the law, more specifically the part which states that the exact terms have to be negotiated with the employer. Employees and employers perceive situations differently due to their background and position, exposing them to the danger of committing the Fundamental Attribution Error, therefore making it hard for the two parties to find common ground. For example when determining the exact terms, if the employee is not in agreement with the employer, the employer will tend to associate the employees concerns and issues with internal factors (under the personal behavioral control) such as laziness; therefore limiting the common ground available (Bargaining Zone, refer to Chapter 9) in order to reach an agreement.

To conclude, I believe that the law if successfully implemented can decrease the employee burnout by avoiding emotional dissonance. However, due to flaws in the law, its implementation will not yield the highest potential results due to primarily the fundamental attribution theory. Nevertheless, I reckon that the Percieved Organization Support (POS) will increase because of this law.

 

Works cited

  1. “French Workers Win Legal Right to Avoid Checking Work Email Out-of-hours.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 31 Dec. 2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.
  2. Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition.