In a hugely interconnected world, work never leaves the employee and vice versa. People tend to carry their work into their homes beyond the stipulated working hours and also eat into their weekends. France intends to put an end to all this by enacting a reform bill that will make it illegal to send mail beyond the working hours. How such a bill will be enforced remains a subject of intense discussion, however, the Prime Minister is confident of implementing the bill in its true spirit. The amendment will be introduced to a French reform bill that was recently made a law on May 10
The much needed reform
The French labor reform bill is for companies that have 50 or more employees. What the bill gives to the workers is the “right to disconnect”.
“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” Benoit Hamon of the French National Assembly told the BBC.
The harmful culture of overwork
The culture of continuing work at home is wide among the workers in the IT industry. Article 25 of the bill says ““The development of information and communication technologies, if badly managed or regulated, can have an impact on the health of workers,”. As the article rightly suggest, health of workers has taken a back seat due to the excessive work.
Time for India?
The culture of competition and the need to do be more productive has pushed many firms to the limits of their capacity, often resulting in work-life imbalance and deterioration of health.
The Logical Indian appreciates the initiative that will give a welcome breather for workers and also believes sooner than later India should come up with a similar law if not the same, as many employees of the IT industry in India also seem to be carrying their work along everywhere. Balance in work and life is paramount importance for sustainable living and efficient working, it is a matter of time before we realize that.
Women empowerment is one of the most important words of the present times. It is not a mere phrase but it rather represents a movement, which has been pending for the longest time. However, many have a misconception that educating women, “letting” them work, etc. is all that women empowerment is all about. However, the concept of women empowerment is more of an umbrella term. It intends to involve society as a whole, including men.
We always encourage and applaud a woman who successfully balances both work life and her household. But won’t it be easy for that woman if the load of the work is shared? We see that in our society a woman’s primary role is seen as that of a homemaker. At the same time, her personal likes, aspirations, and dreams are forced to be put on the backburner because of the undue expectation that she has to single handedly manage the household while balancing her career. To give credit where it is due, the times are changing. Men and women of the house are increasingly sharing the workload. However, one can also not turn a blind to the fact that a lot more still needs to be done.
Driving home the same concept, popular brand Ariel has come up with brilliant communication.
The video shows a mother speaking to her married daughter over the phone, all whilst cleaning the mess her son has created. She is absolutely heartbroken when her daughter says that she plans to quit her job since juggling both a demanding job and her household has become too overwhelming. It is during this time that she realises that while she and her husband as parents left no stone unturned to give an all-round upbringing to their daughter, they somewhere forgot to teach their son some basic life skills like cooking and doing laundry so that they grow out to be equally responsible in doing household chores. This is not a story of just one family, but of families across the country. These are some things which everyone must know, not for any other reason, but simply because these are basic tasks which are absolutely essential to survive. And, they make you capable to be equal partners tomorrow!
As Ariel raises an important question-is household work only a woman’s job? We need to ask ourselves the same question. A recent study revealed that the unpaid work done by women around the world amounted to 43 times the annual turnover of Apple Inc. It is high time we share the load and change the narrative that household work is the “duty” of a woman. As the video shows, contributing to the household work is not only a daughter’s work, but the son must contribute his bit too. It is also important for the parents to instil a sense of responsibility in their children, irrespective of their gender so that at any juncture of their lives, they are not completely dependent on another person for basic tasks like these. Ariel has been consistently driving this message and addressing the inequality within households since 2015. The Logical Indian applauds Ariel for coming up with such a brilliant video for depicting such an important concept.
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