Two years after the collective work Que sait-on du travail ? ("What Do We Know About Work?," 2023), produced in partnership with Le Monde, several researchers published Travailler mieux ("Working Better"), also in collaboration with Le Monde, which sets out concrete proposals to improve job quality. Christine Erhel and Bruno Palier, who led these studies, say France must break with excessively top-down management in order to restore meaning and well-being at work.

The French say they are attached to their work, but many also find it difficult, even unbearable. How can this paradox be explained?

Bruno Palier: It can be explained by a huge gap. The French have both higher expectations and face greater difficulties at work than people in comparable countries. The result is not a "Great Resignation," like the one seen in the United States in recent years, but rather a "great disappointment."

People do not leave their jobs, but they do not feel they belong. They feel neither listened to nor recognized. This leads to malaise, a feeling that work lacks meaning. The lack of attentiveness in the workplace is a major issue whose political significance is underestimated. If people are not listened to in their company, they go to the roundabouts [a reference to the Yellow Vests protests]. If they are not listened to at the roundabouts, they end up voting for the far right. There is a direct link between feeling excluded at work and voting for the [far-right] Rassemblement National. Poor management comes at a high social cost.

Is this low quality of work a specifically French phenomenon?

B.P.: All indicators confirm it. To begin with, there are many more cases of sick leave due to occupational illness. And there are 750 occupational fatalities per year, which, relative to the working population, is twice the European average.

Christine Erhel: Compared to countries with similar levels of wealth, like Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, job dissatisfaction is high in France and workers report greater difficulties. This finding of lower job quality is not just based on perceptions. It is well documented. For example, this is evident in the European Working Conditions Survey, which collects data on job arduousness, physical strain, working hours, quality of communication and so on.

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