The View | Less can mean more when it comes to worker productivity

There was a time, and it really was not that long ago, when more or less all business in Hong Kong ground to a halt over the Chinese New Year holiday. Nowadays you find supermarkets open, restaurants, fast food places and other stores are also welcoming customers throughout this period.

Hong Kong has apparently decided not to let the new year mess with its reputation as the “city-that-never-sleeps” but it’s a reputation that can take a heavy toll as the virtues of slowing down and taking a break are somehow lost in the frenetic belief that more is achieved by doing more.

When Hongkongers visit Europe they come back with wide-eyed tales of how shops close at lunchtime and how it sometimes seems as though most people are not working but lounging in cafes and bars.

There is not a shadow of a doubt that the pace of life is far more leisurely in most of continental Europe but even in France, notable for its strict labour laws and resolute determination to do things in a very French sort of way, things are changing.

This month the famous Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette decided to open its doors on Sundays, and it is likely to be followed by other famous retailers such as Printemps and Bon Marche. These moves have come despite determined resistance both from labour unions and civil society organisations who believe that the commercialisation of weekends threatens the French way of life.

While the battle to remain closed seems to have been largely lost, those advocating less intrusion of work into people’s lives have scored a victory in the shape of a pending “right to disconnect” law which gives French employees a statutory right to disconnect from their communication devices when they are not at work.

Smartphone obsessed Hongkongers are probably shaking their heads in dismay over use of the word “disconnect” but, honestly, it can be done. If you look very carefully you will find an off function on all these devices.