Is it also shocking and a less human conditions if somebody works in a supermarket or petrol station and the shift is early mornings or late evenings? I'd say it absolutely common in a lot of professions, maybe less with software engineering.
I guess if someone is making a good living out of it and that avoids the person having to shift to another country its their choice and its OK. But I am surprised the law does not protect remote workers more from these things in european countries. I personally think that remote workers should be more protected.
One thing to bear in mind is that we humans beings have evolved to live during the day, and there are health implications for living most of the time at night. This is why petrol workers etc. can only work one week or so a month in the night, and are compensated accordingly.
But an employer can't just say that an employee will work all the time at night for years, its illegal AFIK due to the aforementioned health implications for the worker.
Shift works is one thing, working all the time at night because the employer is in a different timezone? sounds illegal to me and so the question of its it frequent.
There are other problems with working all the time at night: the impact on your social life, if you have kids they go to bed at 8h so if you start working at 6PM and work through the night basically you never see them etc.
This is why I found it very surprising, because this is apparently happening with engineers living in european countries, where the law is supposed to shield them against these things and there is a lack of software developers everywhere.
No I don't find it shocking, but one thing is early mornings and late evenings, that's different than working through the night. Petrol stations run on 'automatic mode' in most european countries after midnight / 1 o'clock, nobody is there at 4AM.
Exceptions are security guards, hotel receptions, hospitals those are cases where the person being up cannot be avoided, its the nature of the job.
I think its different (from a legal point of view) a job where the person absolutely needs to be up like in a hospital, or a desk job where the person is being asked to completely change its lifestyle just for convenience of the employer.
Comments
Is it also shocking and a less human conditions if somebody works in a supermarket or petrol station and the shift is early mornings or late evenings? I'd say it absolutely common in a lot of professions, maybe less with software engineering.
I guess if someone is making a good living out of it and that avoids the person having to shift to another country its their choice and its OK. But I am surprised the law does not protect remote workers more from these things in european countries. I personally think that remote workers should be more protected.
One thing to bear in mind is that we humans beings have evolved to live during the day, and there are health implications for living most of the time at night. This is why petrol workers etc. can only work one week or so a month in the night, and are compensated accordingly.
But an employer can't just say that an employee will work all the time at night for years, its illegal AFIK due to the aforementioned health implications for the worker.
Shift works is one thing, working all the time at night because the employer is in a different timezone? sounds illegal to me and so the question of its it frequent.
There are other problems with working all the time at night: the impact on your social life, if you have kids they go to bed at 8h so if you start working at 6PM and work through the night basically you never see them etc.
This is why I found it very surprising, because this is apparently happening with engineers living in european countries, where the law is supposed to shield them against these things and there is a lack of software developers everywhere.
No I don't find it shocking, but one thing is early mornings and late evenings, that's different than working through the night. Petrol stations run on 'automatic mode' in most european countries after midnight / 1 o'clock, nobody is there at 4AM.
Exceptions are security guards, hotel receptions, hospitals those are cases where the person being up cannot be avoided, its the nature of the job.
I think its different (from a legal point of view) a job where the person absolutely needs to be up like in a hospital, or a desk job where the person is being asked to completely change its lifestyle just for convenience of the employer.