An increasing number of companies are trying to encourage employees to stop using their BlackBerrys, smartphones and laptops for work-related communications once they’ve clocked out.
“No after-hours e-mail” is part of a growing effort by some employers to rebuild the boundaries between work and home that have crumbled amid the do-more-with-less ethos of the economic downturn, reports The Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang.
One in four companies has created rules to limit after-hours e-mails, both formal and informal, according to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
“For the vast majority of companies and federal offices, the muddying of work and personal time has had financial advantages,” Kang writes. “Corporations and agencies, unable to hire, are more productive than ever thanks in part to work-issued smartphones, tablets and other mobile technology, economists say.”
But Catherine Ruckelshaus, the legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, says more people are having problems balancing their work expectations with their personal lives.
Labor advocacy groups say that more often, employees work evenings and weekends beyond their normal hours and do not record that time with their employers.
Not everyone might be on board for a change in a culture that has encouraged people to work during family meals, on vacations, at the movies, at children’s sporting events, etc. When employees are on call all the time it allows companies to get more work done with less staff, critics say.
Some employees see the all-access pass they give their employers as a potential bargaining tool for promotions.
Still, Kang says, “the perpetually plugged work culture is also making us feel fried.”
I know I feel fried most of the time.
This week’s Color of Money Question: What do you think of employers encouraging workers to stop sending e-mails after work hours? Send your responses to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Put “Communications Curfew” in the subject line and include your full name, city and state.
A Fee-For-All
Bankrate.com said in its 2012 Checking Survey that almost every checking fee it watches went up, with some fees jumping more than 25 percent.
The survey also found that only 39 percent of banks offered a checking account with no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fee, the standard definition of a “free” checking account. That’s down from 45 percent in 2011 and down substantially from its peak of 76 percent in 2009.
Greg McBride, CFA and senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com, said: “We continue to see a decline in the availability of free checking. I don’t expect it to reverse anytime soon.”
Overall banking fees have increased.
The average monthly maintenance fee for a non-interest checking account is now at a record high of $5.48; the average nonsufficient funds fee is $31.26, up from $30.83 last year. And expect to pay an average fee of $2.50 to the owner of the ATM, a new record and up 4 percent from last year. Plus, your bank will charge you another $1.57, on average, at that ATM, an increase of 11 percent, reports Herb Weisbaum, NBC News contributor.
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