As of Jan. 1, a new French law requires companies with more than 50 employees to negotiate with their staff to restrict work-related email use. Basically, companies can no longer require their employees to handle work emails after 5pm.
At first glance, as with many well-intentioned ideas, this seems good on paper. Very few of us enjoy working when we get home. Ideally, home time is for relaxing and preparing for the next day, not sending emails back and forth.
In reality, most of us accept that our employment, our basic means of living, requires productivity. We recognize that our paychecks depend on our usefulness to our employers. This exchange of benefits is the basic principle (and beauty) of capitalism. It explains why the United States is the world’s best place to live. But more than that, our capitalist system encourages the individual pursuit of big and societally-beneficial dreams. Whether those dreams involve new technologies, medical devices or industries (the sharing economy, for example), we all benefit. But the dreams require hard work.
These are realities France rejects. Unfortunately for France, reality can be a harsh master. The new law will drill yet another nail in France’s economic coffin, an economy already smashed by socialist governance. Hiring is stagnant, youth unemployment (as with most socialist nations) is off the charts, productivity is a disaster, and investment has flown abroad.
Contemplate what the anti-email law will mean in practice.
For one, it will further separate French businesses from the consumers they need. After all, businesses with more than 50 employees don’t tend to be local mom and pop stores. Instead, they tend to be those that operate at national and international market levels. As in the U.S., the European Union’s large free market area means these businesses face daily challenges from a wide range of competitors. Now, however, these businesses face a new problem.
Consider a hypothetical example involving France’s national airline, Air France. Assume that Air France uses a range of global contractors to provide its food orders for each flight. Because of the scale involved in such orders, these contractors typically employ more than 50 people. Assume that an Air France official will contact each contractor to let them know how many meals, snacks, drinks, etc. are needed for a flight that week or the very next day. Most times, that order won’t have to be changed. But other times it might, perhaps due to unexpected delays, cancellations, or a major booking that occurs the evening before one flight.
Let’s say that unfortunately, the Air France employee responsible for last minute orders has gone home for the night. Where she would once have had to respond to a colleague’s email as part of her basic job role, now she can decide not to. She can’t be required to respond. The law ensures her job is safe, despite her slacking.
What does this mean for Air France? Either the airline has to pay a premium to get another contractor to fulfill its needs, or the contractor has to pay overtime or hire additional staff to handle last minute orders. What does it mean for the contractor? Most likely, a loss of business.
In either case, the costs of doing business have increased overnight. This is just one example, but the principle applies equally to most businesses with more than 50 employees. Like their counterpart American, British or Chinese businesses, French mid-size firms must operate on a timeline that works for their customer. If they fail, the customer will find a better alternative.
Thanks to this gem of a law, the alternative is now likely to be a non-French firm.
That’s not the only issue here. This law will also mean that those who wish to keep working – those committed to their customers – will no longer be able to do so. Remember, mid-size firms with more than 50 employees employ so many because they need different employees to fill each role.
Imagine that a salesperson receives an order at 7pm for a delivery the next day. The salesperson contacts the delivery servicing officer about the time-sensitive order. But there’s no response, since it’s 6 p.m. The sale is lost, the revenue evaporates and the business owner’s only recourse is to negotiate with the delivery officer’s union. His costs must rise or his business is doomed.
There is one alternative for the mid-size business owner. They could simply cap their business at 50 employees. Just like Obamacare’s employer insurance mandate, many French business owners will take drastic steps to stay in business.
Ultimately, while France might think it has struck a blow for human happiness, the opposite is true. By acting with such disregard for economic reality, France has chosen self-flagellation. Customers in the European economy and global economy do not care about the time of the day. They care about getting the best deal in the most efficient manner. Thanks to this new law, these customers won’t be looking at France.
This is peak socialism, the summit of an ideology both intellectually disingenuous and willfully antagonistic to human interest.
Tom Rogan is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a foreign policy columnist for National Review, a domestic policy columnist for Opportunity Lives, a former panelist on The McLaughlin Group and a senior fellow at the Steamboat Institute. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
