Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–449 of 449 posts

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#441

Post by defrost »

CRConrad wrote: post #439
CalRobert wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it was when smart phones started defaulting to notifications for every email. A scourge.

But why the heck do people get work emails to their private phones in the first place? I just don't understand America. And, since this law was apparently necessary in Australia, not that either. They're both just weird.

In Australia the email thing being discussed is largely a sideshow to the law that was recently passed.

The behaviour of concern relates to the kind of bosses | managers that make a point of contacting employees out of hours and pressuring them to attend the office | answer questions at length, etc.

It's the direct phone calls and obsessive DM's @ 2 minute intervals that being targetted - most people handle auto generated work related emails well enough, they learn to disable notifications and have muscle memory for "Dismiss".

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#442

Post by Aachen »

latexr wrote: post #226
Aachen wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the first paragraph, what does "such a thing" refer to? As for the second, yes that seems like a given. We send each other messages day and night because of that, but nobody expects a response outside of the recipient's working times

> I don't understand the first paragraph, what does "such a thing" refer to? The signature in the email.

Ooh I get it now, that makes sense, thanks

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#443

Post by CalRobert »

CRConrad wrote: post #439
CalRobert wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it was when smart phones started defaulting to notifications for every email. A scourge.

But why the heck do people get work emails to their private phones in the first place? I just don't understand America. And, since this law was apparently necessary in Australia, not that either. They're both just weird.

I completely agree. But it's not just America, this was definitely common when I was working in Ireland for Irish companies too.

I was the weird one for not having Slack on my phone. So far I haven't been fired for it. But maybe I haven't been promoted either.

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#444

Post by CRConrad »

albert_e wrote: post #290

Interpreting that headline literally ... If person A is working late (maybe they started their day late, or they work from a different timezone) and send a memo during off hours of Person B ... the memo can be "ignored" by Person B even when they come back to work next day? Same for all off hours when person B is on leave - planned or otherwise?

What an utterly weird reading; I have a hard time seeing it as literal at all. Maybe you have your own definition of "literal"?

It says they have the right to ignore them after hours. After hours is when they do the ignoring. When they're back on the clock, they stop ignoring and start reading their emails again. Including the ones sent while they were off; the headline doesn't say they have the right to ignore anything during working hours.

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#446

Post by yawaramin »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #387
yawaramin wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What stops my employer from potentially disciplining or firing me is first of all, that I am good at what I do, and second that I negotiate from a position of strength. In other words, you are at the tender mercies of your employer, and you rely on them to uphold the implicit contract that they will not cross those unspoken boundaries. I'm glad this strategy works for you, but you are literally placing your livelih…

>> In other words, you are at the tender mercies of your employer There are no tender mercies involved. "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" -- Adam Smith Mr. Smith is talking about the sell side rather than the buy side in that passage, but the same principle applies. Obviously employers would prefer not to e…

> My life, financially, will go on exactly as it does now.

Then your situation has zero relevance to almost every human being on earth

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#447

Post by red_admiral »

Propelloni wrote: post #171
red_admiral wrote: post #140

I like the Swiss implementation of this. A manager _can_ contact an employee on a Sunday, but then the employee is immediately on weekend-rate overtime even if they just got an email with "deal with this next week". So, many companies have systems that hold back e-mail sent outside of working hours until the next working day unless specially authorised and costed. Never underestimate an economics-based solution to a…

Does the manager also get weekend-rate overtime if she sends out e-mails on the weekend? I mean, she _is_ working! Sounds like an incentive mismatch here. Or is this just a protection of workers on a tariff and does not cover "exempt" employees, ie. most IT people.

You are only exempt if you make at least 125k a year. Below that, you MUST log all your hours, IT or not.

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#448

Post by red_admiral »

skizm wrote: post #243
red_admiral wrote: post #140

I like the Swiss implementation of this. A manager _can_ contact an employee on a Sunday, but then the employee is immediately on weekend-rate overtime even if they just got an email with "deal with this next week". So, many companies have systems that hold back e-mail sent outside of working hours until the next working day unless specially authorised and costed. Never underestimate an economics-based solution to a…

Is everything hourly there? Would this work with salaried employees that don't log hours? Or maybe everyone does? A running joke in my first company out of school was "can't wait to see that overtime check!" whenever we saw someone working after 5. The implication is no one ever gets overtime as a salaried employee.

The economic solution again: you want your worker not to have to log hours because they have an important management job and work "as much as necessary"? Sure, pay them at least 125k a year. Anything under that, they must log hours.

Re: Australian employees now have the right to ignore work emails, calls after hours

#449

Post by Yodel0914 »

chgs wrote: post #209
Yodel0914 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of prod support can't be done remotely, for practical (need access to this physical environment) or security reasons.

In which case you need 24/7 shifts on site. If you can fix a problem remotely from your home then someone can do it in Sydney.

24/7 on-site is costly and counterproductive when issues are rare but high impact.

Someone in another country providing remote support doesn't work for a whole range of industries, particularly where security clearance is in play.

Post reply on HN