Cutting off completely with work on vacation is not obvious to everyone, a phenomenon which tends to increase in a hyper-connected society (AFP/Archives/Tobias SCHWARZ)
“It worries me, I’m afraid of missing something”: cutting off completely with work on vacation is not obvious to everyone, a phenomenon which tends to increase in a hyper-connected society and can have health implications.
“I + check + my emails every day, my SMS, Twitter…”, even on the beach, reports to AFP Laurence Roques, lawyer at the bar of Val-de-Marne, saying to herself “unable to pick up”.
“Nobody imposes it on me”, but “we realize all the same that there is a dictatorship of the acceleration of time. Before, the customers did not dare to disturb us”, she says. “Everyone is + addict +” and that “results in a vicious circle!”.
Same fear of “missing something” for Virginie (who prefers to keep her name silent). In communication in a large industrial group, she also watches “every day” and cannot help intervening when something “messes her up”.
“I only have one phone that does both: personal and professional. So it’s very tempting, just go click on the mailbox,” she reports.
According to an Ipsos study published in June, 28% of employees expected to work during their holidays and 42% will look at emails and messages, according to this survey for Ringcentral, a communication solutions provider.
Me François Hubert, of the firm Voltaire Avocats, recalls that the disconnection was enshrined in case law, then taken up within the framework of the Labor law of 2016 and included in the labor code (L2242-17), with an obligation to negotiate and failing to set up a charter.
In terms of litigation, “the subject is starting to rise”: the evolution of technologies and the Covid which has amplified teleworking “may have led to this right being put forward more”. But the lawyer notes that in the event of a conviction of the employers for non-compliance with the disconnection, the damages were “fairly limited”.
– “Self-executioner” –
In the agreements or charters, two main approaches exist, he indicates: an “authoritarian” with cut off access and sanctions if the employee does not respect the rules and a “more flexible”.
“More and more people are obsessed with leaving everything behind” and “the mass of work to be found on recovery” (AFP / Archives / OLIVIER MORIN)
For Matthieu Trubert, who is working on these subjects for the CGT executives (Ugict), the phenomenon “is growing and spreading”: all sectors are concerned and executives are more exposed, but not the only ones affected.
“More and more people are obsessed with leaving everything behind” and “the mass of work to be found on recovery,” he says. As a result, some employees no longer schedule absence messages before going on vacation…
A substantial proportion of companies “are aware” of the problem. But what do we manage to put in place, other than charters or petitions of principle?, he wonders.
The trade unionist evokes “the hamster wheel syndrome”. “We are still quite often the executioner of ourselves”.
Camy Puech, president of Qualisocial, specializing in occupational health, notes that “we are in a period of tension at work”, against a backdrop of risks of inflation or recession in Europe. Added to this is a “fairly tired” population, despite a “form of stability over the last six months” after the Covid period.
“All the ingredients are there so that we don’t disconnect,” he underlines. However, “mental health is like a battery that discharges and recharges. If we maintain continuity, we do not recharge completely”. “The more time passes, the more we suffer, until burn-out, with also the increase in addictive, depressive tendencies…”.
Especially since looking at his messages on vacation is “not very useful”, believes François Sarmant, an executive in the software industry. He notes “the risk of giving instructions without being able to respond to them in due time, which will add confusion”.
© 2023 AFP
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