According to recent research, many UK workers are struggling to stick to working within their designated office hours. The survey found that over 35% continue to answer work emails or conduct work tasks on their personal mobile phones when they get home from work. A quarter do the same during their lunch break and just under a quarter work on their handsets on their commute.
In France, employees now have the legal right to ignore work emails outside of working hours, with companies of over 50 employees having to provide a charter of good conduct, setting out when staff are not supposed to send or answer emails. When asked if the UK should follow suit, over 65% were in favour, implying a strain on British staff and an expectation to be always available even during non-working hours.
The pressure to work whilst away from the office may not only have a detrimental effect on ones well being but employees choosing to use their own mobile device to answer work emails or conducting work tasks, may also be unintentionally failing foul of the GDPR legislations. The new data protection laws mean that businesses need to ensure that data stored on employees mobile phones is as secure as the information held on their own database and servers. As 46% of British workers confessed that they were unaware of the new laws, they could be at risk of non compliance and potentially incurring heavy penalties.
Compelling reasons to consider turning off the the phone alerts and learning to say 'je ne travaille pas pour the moment'
