New Year's Day isn't just about resolutions, past reflections, and future plans, in France, It's a new way of life for workers. On January 1, France has enacted a law that requires companies with more than 50 workers to negotiate times when employees have the right to ignore email regarding work and other forms of communications.

If the negotiation has been settled, the worker's employers cannot punish them for not answering, ignoring messages or calls beyond the set hours. If a manager needs a spreadsheet update while the employee is at home eating dinner, employees won't probably take that call or message. But if there is no deal, the employer still has to badly outline expectations and rights when employees are off work.

Though the deal is not that revolutionary when several companies have already binding deals that prevent them from contacting employees who have finished the day's work. And there's a possibility that some companies may not follow this legal obligation by refusing to give in on expectations and settling for the agreement. Technological companies, in particular, have worried that the law might lower their company's productivity, since IT and Tech usually run 24/7, especially for those employees that want to go overtime.

But still, this is an important step in a time when many companies use smartphones to get more hours from the rank and file employees. French companies will more likely consider the employee's work and life balance, even if the employees don't mark certain hours as off-limits, companies can't make unplanned requests that force employees to drop everything and follow. This could also reduce the pressure of proving once loyalty to the company by working until employees drop dead just to get to the better side of their employers.