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Volkswagen Turns Off E-mail After Work-Hours

Posted by Soulskill on from the we'll-fix-it-in-the-morning dept.

wired_parrot writes "Responding to complaints from employees that email outside of working hours was disrupting their lives, Volkswagen has taken the step of shutting their email servers outside work-hours. Other companies have taken similar steps, with at least one taking the extraordinary step of banning internal e-mail altogether. Is this new awareness of the disruption work email brings on employee's personal life a trend?"

10 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. 8 to 5 by varmittang · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't check my email outside of business hours. If something breaks that needs fixing, call me, otherwise I can wait until tomorrow between 8 to 5.

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  2. Stop checking it, then? by Pope · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, just stop checking your work email device. Or shut it off. If you're not on-call or senior management, as TFA says, you're not in your working hours and should just ignore the damn thing.

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    1. Re:Stop checking it, then? by Scutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously, just stop checking your work email device. Or shut it off. If you're not on-call or senior management, as TFA says, you're not in your working hours and should just ignore the damn thing.

      It's not a technology problem. It's a cultural problem. It's easy to say "just ignore it!" but if your work culture expects it, then you're "not a team player" and it will eventually catch up to you. I recommend finding another company, personally, but in many areas the job market is pretty tough and having to be available after hours is better than not having a job.

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  3. Re:It won't last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't expect this to catch on...either that or it will move to some other social media vehicle like Twitter. Most companies LIKE the fact that they can get their employees free efforts after hours!

    You mean.. most American companies LIKE to exploit their workers.

  4. Re:Banning internal e-mail by Surt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most corporate IM systems log everything.

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  5. Re:It won't last by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Without being facetious, in reality these are the kinds of issues the so-called occupy movements should be focusing on...things like this where the average employee is all but powerless to prevent having any balance between their work lives and their personal lives.

    The concept of a group of workers organizing themselves in order to achieve common goals, such as better working conditions, isn't new. That's the definition of a trade union.

    Remind me again why the average US citizen is so violently opposed to the existence of trade unions, let alone joining one?

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  6. Re:It won't last by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because you're a professional doesn't mean they own you 24/7 - unless YOU let them.

  7. Re:It won't last by CimmerianX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Step 4 - Get fired from your job.

    Step 5 - Job hires a tech who has been unemployed for 9 months who is more than willing to be on call after hours for less pay.

    Step 6 - You start looking for new work, and you and now more than willing to be on call for a job as well.

  8. Re:It won't last by supercrisp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have limited experience with being a union worker, but in both cases, the union promoted good work, supported good workers, and bad workers met with peer pressure to get out or get good. I don't know about the UAW or whatever union the post office has. But I am pretty sure that a lot of stuff said about unions is no more true than stuff said about gay people, "colored" people, etc.. In other words, I bet a lot of it is a bunch of divisive lies spewed by "1%" to keep the "99%" distracted and effectively disenfranchised.

  9. Re:It won't last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know... I sort of like unions. They gave us stuff like:

    Weekends.
    Holidays off.
    Sick time.
    Worker's comp.
    Vacation time.
    40 hour work-weeks in theory.
    Pension plans.

    Oh, they took our kids out of the coal mines and allowed them to get an education, which means they might be able to compete against the Chinese children who get calculus 101 in the eighth grade, or the Europeans who already know 3-5 languages before high school.