Some countries have introduced the right to disconnect, which combats the problem of being available for the company 24/7. But even before those legislative changes, there were tools that provided some partial solution to this problem. For example, in August, 2014 the Mail on Holiday system made its debut. This end-user enabled inbox assistant, deleted all emails received while an employee was on vacation, notified the sender about the fact and provided an alternative contact for urgent issues. This way the employee could actually enjoy their time off, instead of struggling to ignore notifications about incoming work emails, and dreading the day they come back from vacation and have to plow through their Inbox.
Daimler’s Mail on Holiday system was a direct result of a government-founded study carried out by Daimler in collaboration with University of Heidelberg psychologists. But it was also one of the first symptoms of a broader trend. The growing awareness of detrimental effects constant availability has on workers’ health and wellbeing is slowly changing the attitude towards after work emails.
France and Germany were one of the first countries that stepped in with regulations protecting their workers. In France workers in selected sectors of the economy have been obliged to cease communication with work outside office hours. Germany is even further down the road. Some of the country’s most recognized corporations (like Volkswagen, BMW and Puma) have been limiting leisure time emailing since as far back as 2011. Furthermore, back in August, 2014 legislation was introduced prohibiting managers from contacting employees after work. At the same time, an even further-reaching ban on out of office emails started gaining high profile supporters.
It goes without saying that few (if any) of today’s economies are ready to completely eliminate work emails from our personal lives. Even in pre-email times there always was the odd job that simply couldn’t be done without constant availability. However, the trend continues, negative effects of lack of uninterrupted free time become common knowledge, and the right to disconnect is being introduced in more countries.
How to limit emails outside office hours in your Exchange organization
Since Microsoft Exchange Server does not include a built-in recurrence mechanism for mail processing rules (and turning them on and off manually would be cumbersome), the easiest way of implementing a system similar to Daimler’s Mail on Holiday is using a 3rd party solution like CodeTwo Email Signatures On-prem (formerly CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro).
The software lets you set up server-level autoresponders and message blocking rules triggered in recurring time frames (e.g. daily, between certain hours). You can also use the software to redirect messages to users substituting for absent staff.
Another advantage CodeTwo Email Signatures On-prem has over native Microsoft Exchange features is that its administrator can delegate management of selected rules to other staff. Mastering the program is fairly easy and the 2 module architecture allows for controlled remote access even from outside of the domain.
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