It's a bit disingenious I think. I like working at flexible time. I'm not like the French sitting down for dinner with the family at 6pm, in fact I don't even have a family.
If there's something urgent at 11pm I'm totally fine handling it and I'll sleep in the next day to compensate. Forcing me to have a 9-5 life is not the solution.
FTA: Haney thinks the bill is already being misconstrued and said that it would only require that companies be transparent about their expectations for working hours. Employers would still have the freedom to dictate their policy, which could include that employees be available around-the-clock, he said.
France and Germany's laws don't mandate a 9-5 life. Germany's isn't actually even a law at all - it's a self-regulated model which encourages agreements between employers and employees. France's is an actual law, but again it's about negotiating an agreement - it doesn't mandate specific hours.
This makes sense - workplaces differ enough that the it's best to negotiate these things based on the work situation.
In your case given that your work has flexible hours then you could negotiate to be contactable during your "on" hours and not when you're "off". This could be as simple as "you can call me on Slack when I'm logged on there".
We had the voluntary option for employees to use their own phones. Until in Germany their "workers council" decided that as a company we should supply the tools for the job, and they wanted it to be blocked for employees to use their own phones. This caused so much anger with the employees because even though we already give everybody a company phone, a lot of people hate carrying 2 of them and simply stuff the work sim into their second slot and enroll it in the company MDM. On Android in particular the work environment is completely separate.
But for some reason this "workers council" is a total deity there. Even though the employees are represented the people on there are these overzealous crusaders that want everything done their way. We have this phenomenon in Holland too (called "Ondernemingsraad") but they don't tend to heavily-handed force things like this.
But whatever, the Germans can have their rules and regulations, I'm just glad I don't live there. I hate being told what I can and can't do.
> But for some reason this "workers council" is a total deity there
Yes, because otherwise companies would get away with everything. Companies have a representation of themselves, this way the employees are represented as well. It's a good system.
It's a bit disingenious I think. I like working at flexible time. I'm not like the French sitting down for dinner with the family at 6pm, in fact I don't even have a family.
If there's something urgent at 11pm I'm totally fine handling it and I'll sleep in the next day to compensate. Forcing me to have a 9-5 life is not the solution.