In December 2013 the news agency dpa reported on company rules against e-mail after work. The strict rule at Volkswagen applied only to employees under the collective agreement, not to managers. Siemens had no special rule and left the decision to employees. The work psychologist Tim Hagemann said that the higher one rises in the hierarchy, the more one has to get used to e-mail after the end of the working day.
In these examples, the protection of free time was weakest at the top.
In July 2026 the legal careers site LTO Karriere published a guest article on manners around vacation. Its author, Finn J. Muchow, wrote that alltägliche Dringlichkeiten haben bis zum Ende der Auszeit zu warten, everyday urgent matters must wait until the time off is over. Calls are for real emergencies. Answering e-mail from the sun lounger, he wrote, also signals distrust in one’s team. Es demonstriert das Unvermögen, die eigene Freizeit zu strukturieren. It shows an inability to organize one’s own free time.
On 4 December 2025 the Federal Labor Court ruled on a dismissal without notice. A train manager was accused of sexually harassing a colleague on duty. The complaint came while he was on rest days, followed by annual leave. The employer waited until he was back before hearing him. By then the two-week deadline for such a dismissal had passed, and the dismissal was invalid. The court said that leave does not mean an absolute ban on contacting an employee, and that the employer should at least have tried. But it is the employee who decides ob und wie er auf einen entsprechenden Kontaktversuch des Arbeitgebers reagiert, whether and how he responds to such an attempt. If he declines to comment because he is on holiday, there are as a rule special circumstances, and the hearing can wait until he returns.
Contact is allowed. An answer is not owed.
In May 2013 the Bundesrat, the chamber of the federal states, adopted a draft ordinance against mental stress at work. In August 2014 Labor Minister Andrea Nahles said: Es gibt unbestritten einen Zusammenhang zwischen Dauererreichbarkeit und der Zunahme von psychischen Erkrankungen. There is an undisputed link between constant reachability and the rise in mental illness. She had the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health examine whether limits for stress could be defined. The press called the plan an Anti-Stress-Verordnung. The employers’ federation BDA rejected it. In 2020 the Left Party in the Bundestag was still calling for such an ordinance.
In December 2017 Uwe Hück, head of the works council at Porsche, proposed blocking employees’ work mailboxes from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., at weekends and during vacation. E-mails sent at those times would go back to the sender and be deleted. Hück said: Abends noch Mails vom Chef lesen und beantworten, ist unbezahlte Arbeitszeit, die den Stress erhöht – das geht gar nicht. Reading and answering the boss’s e-mails in the evening is unpaid working time that raises stress, and that is not acceptable. The proposal covered employees under the collective agreement, not executives. Porsche called it worth discussing.
In December 2014 Wolfgang Brezina, board member for personnel at the insurer Allianz, said that managers should set an example, especially in the late hours and at weekends. He added: Ich schimpfe auch, wenn mir am Wochenende jemand eine unnötige Mail schickt. I also scold anyone who sends me an unnecessary e-mail at the weekend. On the Allianz board itself, weekend e-mail was limited to emergencies. Brezina did not want a general ban. He considered role models more important than rigid rules.
In 2013 the chemical company Evonik set rules for e-mail after the working day. They apply to about 21,000 employees in Germany. The company states: Wir erwarten nicht, dass E-Mails in der Freizeit und im Urlaub bearbeitet und beantwortet werden. We do not expect e-mails to be dealt with or answered in free time or on holiday. In exceptional cases, colleagues are to call instead. In August 2014 Evonik reported that the number of e-mails sent at weekends had roughly halved.
The district of Greiz in Thuringia reorganized the standby service of its public health office. Staff were to be reachable on weekends and public holidays, also on their private landline and mobile phones. Some employees refused to give their private mobile number and received written warnings. On 16 May 2018 the Thuringia State Labor Court ruled that the warnings had to be removed from their files. According to reports on the court’s press release, the court called the duty to hand over the number einen erheblichen Eingriff, a serious intrusion. An employee who can be reached at any time kann so nicht zur Ruhe kommen, cannot come to rest. It did not matter how likely a call actually was.
In 2014 Deutsche Telekom said that since 2010 it had had a policy recommending that managers avoid sending e-mails after the end of the working day, for example at weekends. In 2013 the Goethe-Institut described the company’s self-commitment: müssen die Arbeitnehmer außer in Krisensituationen in ihrer Freizeit nicht erreichbar sein, except in crisis situations, employees need not be reachable in their free time. In 2013, at the energy company E.on, no business e-mail was allowed from 20 minutes after the end of the working day. BMW chose a different route: Wir haben uns im Wesentlichen für Vertrauen und gegen starre Regeln entschieden. We have essentially decided for trust and against rigid rules.
An employee on sick leave was invited by his employer to a meeting about where he could work in the future. He did not come and received a written warning. On 2 November 2016 the Federal Labor Court ruled that the warning had to be removed. An employee who is unable to work because of illness is as a rule not obliged to appear at the workplace on the employer’s instruction. The exception is a case where his presence is urgently necessary for operational reasons. The employer may write to him and ask him to get in touch if he is interested.