France limits after-hours work emails, Swedish city tests the 30-hour workweek

Tired of responding to your boss' emails after dinner?

Maybe it's time to move to France.

It already has a wonderful-sounding 35-hour workweek in place for many of its workers, and now France is introducing a new labour agreement that will affect up to 250,000 workers in the technology and consultancy sectors: Employers will limit after-hours emails to employees, and cannot pressure them to work from home after their workday ends.

The Guardian originally reported that workers were forbidden from checking their work emails after 6 p.m., something Fast Company and Buzzfeed quickly fact-checked and debunked. A law isn't in place, just an agreement. And workers in the technology sector typically have much longer workweeks than the rest of their French peers, working up to 78 hours a week, so clocking out at 6 p.m. is rare.

The new agreement simply limits after-hours work intrusion and lets employees step away from their work email "for at least 11 hours a day."

Fast Company explains that the rule is "meant to protect some workers from too much after-hours work intrusion (and consequently, burnout)."

One American labour expert isn't convinced the agreement makes sense for the tech industry — don't things usually go wrong after hours? — but that doesn't mean we can't dream of a world where people unplug after work instead of bring it home with them.

Germany has a similar anti-burnout rule in place, recommending "minimum intervention" by managers into workers' free time and only allowing contact if the issue can't wait until the next day to be addressed.

"It's in the interests of employers that workers can reliably switch off from their jobs, otherwise, in the long run, they burn out," says German labour minister Ursula von der Leyen.

And over in Gothenburg, Sweden, town officials are experimenting with a 30-hour workweek. Workers will work for six hours a day — and be paid as though they were working full-time.

Deputy Mayor Mats Pilhem said a six-hour workday produced encouraging results at a car factory in the city.

The department of elderly care will be testing the shorter week, and compared against a "control" department after a year to assess the benefits of a shorter week.

Pilhem hopes the shorter workdays will boost mental and physical well-being, increase work efficiency, and decrease sick days.