Every few years, there's a hot new management strategy that promises to make employees happier, healthier and more productive. To that end, we've seen the rise of positions like "chief happiness officer" as well as workplace dogs and on-site meditation. But while employers may have improved the office itself, they have not solved the stress of leaving it: the crushing tide of emails and IMs, which—thanks to the rise of smartphones can yank us back to work, anytime, anywhere.
Now, in an effort to prevent burnout, a growing number of employers have started to suggest, or even mandate, ways in which employees should unplug their connected devices. The automaker Daimler, for example, made headlines for offering its staff software that auto-deletes employee email while they're on vacation. Volkswagen, in collaboration with its union, set its servers to stop mobile email service for some workers from 30 minutes after quitting time until 30 minutes before starting time. And in January, the French government decreed that people at companies with more than 50 staffers can no longer be expected to answer email during their off hours—a policy dubbed "the right to disconnect."