In recent weeks, an eight-year development of a Dutch design firm has surfaced on social media: a desk that rises by itself at exactly six o’clock in the evening, at the end of each working day. Metal cables pull all the desks in the Dutch office up, including the computers, papers and everything on them, in a modern but more total equivalent of “dropping the pen”. The wide space left in the office – floor only after the chairs have also been cleared to the sides – becomes a free space for the use of office workers. They hold yoga exercises, social gatherings, or invite outside lecturers to inspirational lectures. Even if they want to work, they can not. The timing of this story again, in the midst of the great wave of resignations, is no coincidence. This invention reflects the Zeitgeist in the field of work, who returned to the subject that was so central before the Corona plague – the balance between work and leisure.
The blurring in recent years between work and leisure, total availability via mobile phones, global work across many time zones and also the work from home that characterized the days of the Corona plague, increase the need to set clear boundaries. Effects of attrition at work, large waves of resignations, the refusal of the younger generation to even start jobs that do not fit in with their private lives, and also an overall decline in women’s productivity and exclusion from the workforce, have prompted businesses, and sometimes governments, to take steps to prevent this. Along with a possible shortening of the work week to four days, generous social conditions, pregnancy and childbirth grants and greater flexibility in employment – many employers create a real physical separation between work and private life.
France: An email sent will be blocked until this morning
France, a stronghold of organized labor, where workers already receive 36 days of paid leave a year and the work week includes only 35 hours, led the issue of balance between home and work nearly a decade ago. In 2015, the French government initiated a law that gave workers the “right to disengage.” It allows employees in any sector, from medical services to information services, not to be obligated in any way to be available outside of working hours. In fact, in any company with 50 or more employees, there is a government statement that there is no need to reply to emails outside of business hours. Some large organizations in the French economy have increased to do, and the messages do not even reach the workers. Any email sent outside the set working hours waits the next morning on a special server, to which the messages are routed, to physically prevent the message from reaching the recipient.
Germany: Separate phone for work and vacation in a clean mind
In Germany, applying through the WhatsApp service on business issues is a taboo in most companies. It is considered an invasion of the personal realm, and is therefore not welcome. In fact, large organizations and giant companies like Bayer give their employees work-related phones to avoid intruding on their private time. Employees do not have to answer business phones outside of business hours. It is not uncommon to find German executives walking around with a private phone and a work phone.
Some of Germany’s largest employers, such as car dealership Daimler, have adopted a policy similar to the French ‘right to disengage’, and have even expanded it to include workers’ days off. Workers in Germany are entitled to 30 days off, but many report stress and strain even during the days off, due to fears of the “pile of emails” accumulating while on leave, which they will have to deal with – perhaps until the wee hours of the night – after returning to work. This is why when Daimler employees are on vacation, the emails do not accumulate at all, but return to the sender with a note that “this message was not received by the recipient because he is on vacation”, and a request to refer them to the appropriate person, who works as usual.
The move was adopted after an experiment in the matter led by researchers from the University of Heidelberg. Similar moves have been adopted by Volkswagen, Deutsche Telekom and even federal government ministries themselves. Daimler makes no secret of the fact that the move was made for purely business reasons: “Our goal is to maintain a work-life balance, to ensure long-term employee performance.”
Singapore: Ambassadors of Balance and Sabbaths
Even in Asia, a continent where labor has been considered a supreme value until recent years, and where in some countries cases of “work to death” cases have been documented, the spirit of the times is changing. The understanding is that more working hours do not lead to more efficient work. A survey by consulting firm Morgan McKinley last month found that 82% of workers in Singapore, where many multinational companies set up their Asian headquarters, work “beyond their defined working hours.” Only 27% of workers, however, said they are efficient during these overtime hours, a phenomenon that sounds familiar to Israeli workers as well, especially in the high-tech field.
This is one of the reasons why Singapore has in recent years placed “life-work balancing ambassadors” in international companies, and devotes government resources to trying to reduce the effects of professional attrition. At the local Sony branch, the company’s CEO reported to the Singaporean newspaper The Times, management sent a clear message to employees not to send emails or group messages after work.
In addition, many multinational companies in Singapore have adopted a model of “Shut-Down Days” – days of concentrated vacation in which all employees of the company are on vacation at the same time. “This initiative is designed to give workers extra time to spend time or spend time with family,” said Kabikomar Moroganathan, a government-based work-life balance consultant, “but more significantly, it reduces the FOMO (” fear of missing out “) that many workers feel When they are seemingly on leave, but are actually preoccupied with the thought of what their colleagues are doing and with their work. “
Denmark: A lunch break is a social obligation
Singapore is a world leader in the number of working hours per year, 2,330 hours. The one at the bottom of the OECD index ranking is Copenhagen, with 1,380 hours. Accordingly, the Danish capital was declared last month by a British consultancy agency that mapped the most convenient cities for work as the capital of work-family harmony. In Denmark, too, there are office ceremonies that try to emphasize the field of leisure. A shared lunch break is a kind of social obligation, as well as a social gathering before the weekend.
Vacation days and government assistance: This is how you get leisure in 68% of the day
The most influential factors in the work-life balance are not vanishing tables or other physical solutions, but a work culture dictated by, among other things, government laws. In the international indices that assess the issue, the most significant weights are given to the number of annual vacation days, to government assistance with the children and only then to ad hoc initiatives designed to improve the mood of the workers. Four months of full-paid maternity leave in Germany is very significant for women trying to maintain balance. Vacation days also affect the feeling significantly. In Finland, where the issue of balance is a national occupation, workers enjoy an average of 30 days off a year. In Los Angeles, USA, on the other hand, there are only seven days of paid leave.
The EU has also intervened in the efforts, and three years ago enacted a European directive designed to help women primarily to maintain work-life balance, by ensuring salaries, equal distribution with spouses, and financial benefits. Recent surveys indicate a relatively good situation in developed economies: 63% of the day is spent by the average OECD worker on leisure or sleeping / eating. In Denmark, one of the European champions, the rate stands at 68% from today. The interval is not large.