In France, the question of meaning at work seems to be gaining more and more momentum in discussions between the different business stakeholders. On the occasion of the French Social Weeks, which are taking place in Paris on November 23 and 24, the president of the Paris Social Weeks, Philippe Garabiol, insists on the need to “lose time at work” to work on the collective in the businesses.
Jean-Benoît Harel – Vatican City
«Work is man's vocation», assured Pope Francis in his homily of 1is May 2020, Labor Day. The Sovereign Pontiff frequently recalls that work is an essential element of human dignity, and particularly of the poorest. But many are wondering today: “Why do we go to work?“. This is the question at the center of the weekend of reflection organized by the Social Weeks of France in Paris.
Interview with Philippe Garabiol, president of Paris Social Weeks
An interest in ethical values
The relationship with work evolves over time, particularly among younger people. Thus, Philippe Garabiol, a senior civil servant who has worked for various social ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, Solidarity, and Labor, noticed that the young generation of workers, millenials (currently aged between 40 and 25), has become very demanding on the job market.
«What's interesting is that these requirements aren't so much salary requirements. In general, what is required is to be able to combine personal and professional life, but it is also to know the ethical values of the company, because we now choose our company also in relation to its ethical values», Explains the president of the Paris Social Weeks.
This evolution has forced companies to become, for some, companies with a mission, but for all to engage in charitable works, in the inclusion of all at work such as people with disabilities or in reintegration, example of efforts on behalf of prisoners.
Human first
But these societal commitments are part of a more general framework, through the overall performance index, which combines economic performance, social performance and environmental performance. Additionally, this new generation of workers is also looking at “quality of life working conditions“. Philippe Garabiol explains:
“It is the fact that employees benefit from a work environment that makes them deeply worthy of this work. So, it’s the idea that we rehumanize work by offering it a quality that allows everyone to be able to say to themselves: “I’m not just here to produce, I’m not just here for a mercantile relationship. I’m also here for something else.” And this other thing is what ensures that there will be humanity in my work and this is what ensures that in the end, I feel deeply worthy of the effort that I have made. .”
Rehumanize work
If the convergence between bosses and employees on the need to improve working conditions seems established, Philippe Garabiol proposes a way of “rehumanize work“. For him, we must emphasize the sense of the collective: “what has been missing over the last 15 years is to rethink the work collective».
One of the keys to building this collective is listening time. Different from union dialogue, listening time is made up of all the informal moments, at the coffee machine, in the restaurant, during a business trip which allow “to hear what the other has to say».
“In listening time there is a lot of expression, discontent and suffering. There is also the ability for employers or managers to explain a situation that an employee would not have understood otherwise. So it creates understanding and not incomprehension, therefore a link,”
The president of the Paris Social Weeks is concerned about executives in companies or administrations who do not pay attention to this link, which is essential to the work collective. Because “the company is first and foremost built with men and women», he concludes.
