
Of course French employees will still answer email after 6PM. - liam_boogar
http://www.rudebaguette.com/2014/04/10/french-will-definitely-answering-emails-6pm/
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furyg3
Most western european countries get a lot of flak for policies which amount to
"Employers have to treat their employees responsibly".

Employers hired a person, not a robot. People have private lives, get sick,
have relatives who get sick, have children, need vacations. Those problems
become the problems of an employer when they hire someone.

The government has a role in describing the norms and minimum requirements of
this relationship. Most of these rules don't affect most working
professionals, because they already work for employers who are responsible.

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Xylakant
There's some large companies in Germany that stopped delivering emails to most
employees after 8 in the evening. All emails will get delivered in the
morning. People that might receive alerts or important stuff are exempt, but
the general employee is not.

I think that's a reasonable approach - receiving work-related email in the
evening keeps your mind on the work-problems and I do think people just need
some downtime to relax.

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hrktb
To throw into the discussion, France chronically has a very high depression
rate [0]. I don't have the exact numbers but there is correlation with high
income, and generally speaking work related mental illness are not uncommon.

The image of French people as lazy asses is about a half of the population
perhaps. The other half[1] is in a different boat altogether.

[0] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-26/france-u-s-have-
hig...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-26/france-u-s-have-highest-
depression-rates-in-world-study-suggests.html) [1] wild guess

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vixen99
"Trade Unions representing workers in the technical and digital sectors have
won a legally-binding agreement prohibiting employees from contacting staff
after work."

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601526/Turn-
BlackBe...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601526/Turn-BlackBerry-
Bosses-banned-contacting-staff-work-hours-new-French-employment-
law.html#ixzz2yV4UqTiO)

I guess those who would prefer the Daily Mail not to exist in its present form
will enjoy rebutting this 'alleged news'.

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batbomb
As someone who works with many French and Danish colleagues... If they didn't
respond after 6pm ever, the turnaround for anything involving the west coast
of the United States would be ridiculous. There would be no chance for any
real-time communication.

For example, I wake up, see email at 8:30am asking me to do something. Not all
information is provided, so I fire an email back at 9am/6pm in France. Oops,
too late. They don't respond til 10am their time, which happens to be 1am
here, and I already fell asleep.

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arebours
Oh come now, I worked for several companies in my life and always included
regular breaks and lunch in my 8h work schedule. Never seen anyone not doing
so. I live and work in Poland.

~~~
Totoradio
I live and work in France, and the part about 9 to 7 is real in Paris (I
currently do 7 to 5 because I like to leave early). Elsewhere in France it
would be closer to 8 to 6 I think.

~~~
purephase
Is the 2 hours lunch/break time sacrosanct? Meaning, pretty much everyone does
it?

I rarely take a long break during the working day, lunch is 30min at most.
But, I like to leave a bit earlier to spend time with my daughter.

Once she's in bed at night, I'll usually work for a few more hours though. So,
I may not be a good example.

~~~
Totoradio
45min/1 hour lunch would be the norm, the rest of the 2 hours covers the
coffee/cigarette/whatever non-work related breaks

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vonnik
Why do we even care about France? Why does it make so much more noise than the
UK and Germany, where tech is really flourishing? France has been in gentle
decline since Napoleon. It hasn't won a war in 200 years. It has given up much
of its power as a nation state to Brussels and Berlin. Its citizens are
luddites and its elite have created an economy that crushes young people. I
speak as someone who lived there for many years. France talks big, but little
happens there.

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kjjw
I've never kept office hours as long as 9am to 7.30pm. Too long in one
location turns you into a monkey banging away random crap on a keyboard.

~~~
wil421
The article said those hours include 2 hours of lunch and breaks during the
day.

~~~
Totoradio
I am genuinely curious here, how does lunch work in an american 9 to 5?
Everyone eats at their desk?

~~~
kohanz
In Canada, which is culturally very similar, the typical lunch break us under
1 hour. in some strict places it's 30 minutes. People rarely go home for
lunch. usually they bring lunch to work, or buy it, and eat in a common area.

~~~
wil421
Exactly, I only know of one person who goes home for lunch but that is because
he lives half a mile away.

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purephase
Starting at 9 and ending at 7? I take it the average French employee doesn't
have children. Those hours mean that you'll rarely ever see them. At least
during the work week.

~~~
Totoradio
Usually in a couple, one will drop the kids at school in the morning and will
do a 9.30 to 7.30 and the other will do the opposite and leave work early to
pick up the kids. Single parents have to pay a babysitter to take care of that
if they can, or have agreements with other parents/neighbours.

