A survey of Norwegian business leaders has revealed that more than half of them expect employees to answer their email and phone calls after normal business hours. The survey worries employee labour organizations who claim that cuts into workers’ time off.
Fully 52 percent of bosses at private companies in Norway expect a response if they call or mail an employee after hours. The head of the country’s engineering and technology association, Trond Markussen, called that a “frightening development that further blurs the lines between work time and free time.”
The survey, conducted for the association by research firm Respons Analyse, indicated that male bosses had a higher degree of expectation than female bosses, who seemed to have more respect for an employee’s time off. Private-sector employers were more likely to expect after-hours accessibility among employees than public sector employers, of whom only 30 percent expected a response in the evenings, on weekends or during an employee’s holiday.
Employees of banks, finance companies and service organizations were most likely to be called on after work. The survey showed, however, that employees also can expect answers from their bosses, with full 94 percent of business leaders claiming they had been called by or received mail from employees themselves after quitting time.
newsinenglish.no staff
