Email, notifications, videoconferences … The permanent connection with the screens and the multiplication of communication means that “endless” business days to permanent interruptions, with strong consequences in mental and physical health, alert experts and several recent studies.
According to a recent global report by Microsoft, which has measured the use of digital tools in 31,000 “knowledge workers” in 31 countries, including France, “an average employee now receives 117 emails and 153 equipment messages per day.”
During work hours, employees “are interrupted on average every two minutes, that is, 275 times a day, by meetings, emails or CAT notifications”, according to this study carried out on the basis of “Microsoft 365 productivity signals approved and anonymized” by the Giant software.
Hyperconnection considerably extends the working day: the company indicates that “40% of employees consult their emails before 6 am” and 29% around 10 pm.
Sleep disorders, constant pressure sensation …
In France, 65% of employees say they depend on the screens and their company acts to limit their connection only for 16% of them, according to a study conducted by Viavoice for the consulting firm in health prevention.
In addition, three quarters of the 1,000 people interviewed for this study declare that “it has already felt negative effects linked to their digital use”, with particular sleep disorders (for 76%), difficulties of concentration (77%), a sensation of constant pressure (78%) or “stress and anxiety in confrontation of digital applications.”
“We see this phenomenon not only worsening, but there is also a quite surprising trend in trivialization, even the assessment of this hyperconnection in business,” said Verbateam general manager Florem Traft AFP.
35-45 years more affected than the youngest
“The service companies are much more affected than companies with 3×8 regimes,” says the president of the Psychosocial Risk Federation (FIRP) Isabelle Tarty.
“Before going to the client, we had an appointment in the morning, an appointment in the afternoon, but they were not four to five large meetings on the same day. In terms of mental load, it has not yet been very well analyzed,” he said. The specialist adds that she even met bus drivers and Metro “who begin to treat emails at the end of their work.”
The battle for the right to disconnect
However, the right to disconnect, for which the law of August 8, 2016 (known as the Khomri) provides the obligation to negotiate in companies of 50 employees, is far from still effective, despite the letters signed in business.
According to the latest survey published on Monday by the Union of CADR and technicians of CA (UGICT), 67% of executives “would like to have the right to effective disconnection to preserve their privacy and health”, a greater proportion of 11 points compared to 2016.
Whatever the situation in their company, employees “have the right not to be accessible outside their work time, regardless of the existence of an agreement,” recalls Pauline Mureau, social law lawyer in the Voltaire law firm.
“But rest times are not always respected, which generates quite large litigation with quite significant risks for employers,” according to the lawyer.
She explains that the employee “can simply produce the emails that he received or sent to justify that he was contacted and that he was responding to 11 pm and that he responded to an email at 8 am the next day.”
Source: BFM TV
