<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Ah, the French. They truly know how to live. Sorry, rich Cadillac guy, I&amp;#x27;m considering running off to the land of baguettes and Bordeaux. Yes, you can get both in the U.S., but what you can&amp;#x27;t get is a rule that bans answering work-related emails after work hours&amp;amp;mdash;at least at some major tech and consulting companies. That&amp;#x27;s right. Well, it&amp;#x27;s kind of right. Yesterday, Twitter and Facebook were buzzing about an article by The Guardian reporting that it was now French law to ban work emails after 6 P.M. A gazillion people across the U.S.&amp;amp;mdash;probably exhausted, probably at their desks&amp;amp;mdash;shared the story, which said that the deal was brokered by employers&amp;#x27; federations and unions, and &amp;quot;affects a million employees in the technology and consultancy sectors (including the French arms of Google, Facebook, Deloitte and PwC), employees will also have to resist the temptation to look at work-related material on their computers or smartphones.&amp;quot; The goal? To avoid burnout&amp;amp;mdash;something that makes a whole lot of sense. While this would be awesome (and very le French), it turns out there was some misreporting. The federation of employers created the new rule specifically to help take the pressure off employees (mostly in management) already working more than 35 hours a week, and that much fewer than a million employees will be affected&amp;amp;mdash;and more like 250,000. If you happen know French, you can read all about it on lesechos.fr and slate.fr. Still, the fact that companies in France are even having this discussion says something about French culture...and we might want to take a hint. Don&amp;#x27;t get me wrong, I love our country. But sometimes, when I hear about countries in Europe providing things like 26 (or more) weeks maternity leave, universal healthcare, and now this business about shutting down late-night emails (even if it&amp;#x27;s affecting only a small percentage of the population at the moment), and the fact that U.S. workers put in 200+ more hours than the French every year...well, it&amp;#x27;s hard not to start looking for Paris apartments on Craigslist. That&amp;#x27;s especially true when you consider that France is home to lots of delicious cheese! And croissants! And wine! I&amp;#x27;m curious to hear what you think. Do you answer work emails once you&amp;#x27;ve left the office? How do you separate your work life from your personal life, when it comes to technology? Share in the comments!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2014/04/france-bans-answering-work-ema>