Get the message, PHBs: New York City mulls ban on after-hours biz email New York's City Council is mulling a law that would make it illegal for employers to require workers be on-call to answer emails after clocking out for the day. Introduction 726, put forward this month by Council Member Rafael Espinal (D-Brooklyn), would require organizations to allow their employees to disconnect during non- …
Exactly! Who in their right mind reads , let alone answers, business e-mails after hours?
More to the point why not switch odd the business phone as you walk out of the office door and only switch it on again when you return the next day. Either that or keep a time sheet of all the extra hours spent and submit it as overtime.
Yes, if you are self-employed you are your own boss and get to decide this. You can go cycling as early as you wish, or you can work as long as you want to (or see the need to). This is both a blessing and a curse.
If I read business mails after hours I actually take TIL (no overtime payment...). Simples. I have not been questioned about this, but I do this openly. There are also times when I work really crazy hours (deadlines, inspiration strikes).
One thing: my next employer forbids me to clock time on Sundays. Thus: no business mails on Sundays. No exception, unless something burns (and then it is probably not my immediate problem and dealing with it early on Monday is probably good enough).
Don't have to move to the Garden State, just move out of NYC. The real problem is the bill is not thought through. Some professions really do need to be on call. The question becomes how many need to available and could a company have a rotation for on call staff that would allow both reasonable coverage and some respite for the rest of the staff.
Thing is, a place like Newark, New Jersey may be a better place to resettle than elsewhere in New York State (and it's still easy to go back to New York if necessary). Furthermore, threatening to move out of the state would deprive the state of lucrative corporate taxes, meaning Albany can get involved to rein in the Big Apple.
Jersey City is less than a mile away across the Hudson River. Less than half the distance from the city of London to Canary Wharf and a much easier journey. Many of the big firms already have offices there. Were it to happen they would just push a few more people across the river.
I'd rather know what s**t is happening with the systems than have an almighty mess to deal with when I return to the office.
Like in the days before email when the tape drive failed on a Unix box. Despite phoning me (I had the "mobile" carphone-attached-to-a-battery) and me telling them I'd sort it on my return the pHB insisted on calling in a PC engineer. His first act, since he didn't have a clue about Unix, was to power down the server. Cue a week of rebuilding and recovering given that of course we didn't have a backup for a few days.
During the weeks I'm on call, I receive a bonus which works out to about an additional 30% of my regular pay. That doesn't include overtime when I actually receive a call. Pay employees appropriately, and you will have no shortage of after-hours support.
Another case of legislators full of solutions that are desperately in search of a problem.
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