Politicians in New York City are taking into consideration a measure that would make it illegal to require workers to check or respond to business emails outside of regular business hours.
“There are no exemptions right now in the way it’s written that provide for police or medical professionals, so this really hasn’t been thought through,” Kyle Reyes, CEO of Silent Partner Marketing told Fox Business News.
Corporate Psychologist and Management Consultant Dr. Patricia Thompson, who has been consulting CEOs and senior executives since 2004, and whose clients include Home Depot, United Way, Chick-Fil-A, Habitat for Humanity and SunTrust Banks, while acknowledging her limitations in law training, doesn’t see much of a future for the bill. “I’m not really optimistic it will get passed,” she tells KTRH News.
This idea may not have legs, but there is plenty of frustration in the workforce by people who are finding their careers interfering in their personal lives. On the other side, there are people who find handling a few business emails when they get home from work at night eases their load.
“For those who expect they’re going to bring some work home with them, they actually get less stress when they’re able to use their email outside of work,” says Dr. Thompson, citing a recent study.
A recent survey of business executives in Canada finds roughly one-third of business emails are responded to outside of the office.