Why you should not mandate employees to check email after work hours

Posted by devan under Management
From http://www.enmast.com 3633 days ago
Made Hot by: MarketWiz on May 14, 2014 8:22 pm

Devan thinks it's wrong for employees to require that employees check their work email after 5pm and on weekends. So does France and Germany. Here's why. (Do you agree or disagree?)

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Comments

Written by HeatherStone
3633 days ago

Hi Devan,

It probably should surprise no one that a technology many credit with increasing productivity may be erasing the boundaries between personal and work time. For very small businesses, solopreneurs and the like, the option to be available anytime and to work from anywhere gives them the flexibility of not being tied to the office, whether that's because they desire a flexible schedule or because they need to be able to be out of the office conducting business while still monitoring emails and calls. For entrepreneurs with employees, however, it's important that you be mindful of personal boundaries. Deciding you have the right to contact an employees or member of your team anytime, anywhere can have detrimental results on morale.

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Written by devan
3632 days ago

Great points, Heather. I like to say that business owners work on bettering "work-life integration" while employees try to work on better "work-life balance" (or rather, separation).

Communicating with your team and new employees what they expect from you in terms of work availability up front (even in the interview) is so important. Getting caught off guard after you get the job and finding you have to be available by email any time can hurt the employee/employer relationship quite a bit.

Thanks, Heather!

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