> The question is, how did companies persuade people that they should work for free on the way into the office?
That's the fun part - companies didn't, people did it to themselves. Probably started as just some people answering emails they got overnight on their morning commute. Thanks to smartphones and always on connectivity, other colleagues get a ping that there's an email. And before long you've got your employees mailing each other.
I don't think there's ever been an actual company policy that codified the expectation that people should be answering company emails in their own time.
That's the fun part - companies didn't, people did it to themselves. Probably started as just some people answering emails they got overnight on their morning commute. Thanks to smartphones and always on connectivity, other colleagues get a ping that there's an email. And before long you've got your employees mailing each other.
I don't think there's ever been an actual company policy that codified the expectation that people should be answering company emails in their own time.