Email ban to bust work stress

Some bosses have stopped sending emails to employees outside work hours and encouraged staff not to respond to work-related emails in a bid to bust rising stress levels.

One government department head told his managers they could write emails but not send them outside 9-5 because recipients would feel obliged to respond.

John Eatwell, a Christchurchbased psychologist who consults with national organisations on leadership development, said he worked with the regional commissioner of the department a couple of years ago on implementing the block.

He is also dealing with chief executives of national organisations who are moving that way.

New Zealanders had traditionally worked longer hours than many other countries, he said.

“There is a growing trend, though, to manage this, and acknowledgement that more is not better.

“Some countries in Europe have made it illegal to send emails to phones after work hours. Some New Zealand companies are telling managers not to send emails after hours and are stopping emails to phones during annual leave.”

Nelson City Council, which has 280 employees, introduced a policy in 2016 stopping access to all IT systems, including work email, for staff who were on leave for two weeks or more.

“This has been introduced for wellbeing reasons, to enforce a real break away from work, but also for risk management and fraud prevention reasons,” said communications manager Paul Shattock.

French workers last year were granted the legal right to disconnect and ignore work emails outside standard work hours.

The bill — the first of its kind in the world — forced companies of more than 50 people to negotiate when employees can work outside of France’s standard 35-hour week.

The latest Wellness in the Workplace report, covering 2016, showed a net 22.9 per cent of employers noted an increase in stress/anxiety and for larger companies — with 50-plus staff — it was even higher at 30.5 per cent.