Is the post-Covid break that is often described in the relationship of the French to work, based on “great resignation”, loss of meaning or even “quiet quitting”, a chimera?
A study by the Institut Montaigne, which is based on a vast survey by Kantar Public conducted among 5,001 active French people, calls into question certain received ideas.
In particular the lack of fulfillment of French workers.
"
As previous studies have already shown, the majority of French people are satisfied with their work
", notes the summary of the study, which notes that "
77% of working people attribute a score greater than or equal to 6/10 to the question" how satisfied are you when you think about your job today?”
".
Likewise, the supposed “
laziness epidemic
” does not translate into the numbers.
On the one hand, "
working time has been stable since the 2000s, after 30 years of decline
", notes the study.
Paradoxically, a large majority of working people (60%) feel that their workload has increased over the past five years.
On the other hand, "
the wish to 'work more to earn more' remains frequent and largely outweighs that of 'working less even if it means earning less'
", underlines the authors of the study, Bertrand Martinot and Lisa Thomas- Darbois.
Indeed, while a relative majority of full-time employees (47%) do not wish to see their working hours changed, they are much more likely to say they are ready to "
work more to earn more
” (31%) than to “
work less even if it means earning less
” (15%).
The “myth” of the “great resignation”
The study also sheds light on the increase in atypical working hours, particularly among executives.
“
Only 40% of full-time employees (and 13% of the self-employed) report both working only from Monday to Friday and never working after 8 p.m. – whether at home or at their place of work – or the public holidays
”, points out the authors of the report.
As for the massive rejection of the increase in the legal retirement age, again observed in this study - only 7% of working people consider that 62 years is insufficient -, "
it is undoubtedly more the result of a political crisis more general than a manifestation of a sudden collapse of the “value of work”
,” the study concludes.
Read alsoGilbert This: “There is no French “great laziness””
The study finally deconstructs what it calls the “
myth
” of the “
great resignation
”.
"
Resignations, for all reasons, remain at a very low level as a proportion of the salaried workforce in view of the tense situation of the labor market
", she notes.
For the authors, “
the essential explanation for the significant increase in ruptures at the origin of employees seems rather related to the improvement in the labor market observed in recent years, and especially since the post-Covid period
”.
In summary, therefore, “
there is no break between before and after Covid in the individual relationship that working people have with their work
”, estimates the study, apart from one thing: the use of telework.
Its distribution, which the authors describe as “
extraordinary
”, “
constitutes THE major break in terms of working conditions compared to the “pre-Covid world”
”.
At the end of 2022, 40% of workers say they practice telework at least occasionally, compared to 7.4% in 2017 according to INSEE.