Volkswagen Workers Can Sleep Better: No Mail At Night

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Volkswagen’s 1,154 white-collar workers that have been issued smartphones by the company will get an unexpected (and possibly unwelcome) Christmas present: Silent Night in the in-boxes.

Volkswagen and its works council have agreed that the e-mail function will be deactivated at night, Reuters reports:

“Workers will only receive e-mails from half an hour before the start of flex-time working hours until half an hour after they end, but will still be able to receive and make phone calls.”

The works council was worried that being reachable via email around the clock could heighten the risk of burnout, “a psychological syndrome that some studies have said causes almost 10 million sick days a year in Germany.”

The fact that email does not need to be checked while sleeping must have escaped some.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Turtletop Turtletop on Dec 23, 2011

    The fact that this is worthy of note at all speaks volumes about the sickness of present-day workplace culture. Good on VW for showing how a civilized company behaves. Seriously, if you can't organize your company so that your employees can have a holiday without your disturbing them at all hours and taking yet more time away from family and loved ones, your management skills are piss-poor at best.

    • See 2 previous
    • MattPete MattPete on Dec 24, 2011

      @jmo The 350k people are my in-laws. Really shitty people who will make any lame excuse at the drop of the hat. First birthday of their nephew (who is their god-son)? Can't make it, because they need to go to a baseball game with 'clients'. Same bullshit all the time. Money is cool, but smelling the roses can be better. "The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. "

  • Pch101 Pch101 on Dec 23, 2011
    The fact that email does not need to be checked while sleeping must have escaped some. I worked in a large company whose president was fond of sending out email at 2-3 AM. He expected immediate responses. Aside from quitting, there was no escape.
    • See 1 previous
    • Greg Locock Greg Locock on Dec 25, 2011

      Hopefully the owners of that company will become aware of that idiot waking his staff up in the middle of the night with the consequent effect on their daytime performance. What a drongo.

  • Fusion Fusion on Dec 23, 2011

    I think you should mention that this rule only applies to employees who fall under the general contracts between union and Volkswagen - thats why its "only" 1100 workers. Usually, mid-management and up (maybe even lower) will not be under those contracts and therefore can keep their email function... ;)

  • Dhcobra Dhcobra on Dec 24, 2011

    Who cares about the e-mail function which is a nice luxury. If the situation is important enough to disturb a key employee on his off time a phone call should be in order.

    • MattPete MattPete on Dec 24, 2011

      Amen! If it's an emergency, call me. I no longer answer my email when I'm out of the office. Likewise, if it's not an emergency, please do not interrupt me with a phone call. I'm not at your beck-and-call to jabber, yet I am not quite at the rank in my organization where I have my own personal secretary (er, admin). * Since I adopted this rule, not only has my social and family life improved, but so has my productivity. I schedule my work so that I get done during work hours. Distractions are no longer tolerated. Meetings are no longer allowed to go beyond their scheduled time.

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