While some claim “a right to laziness” like the Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, others, like the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, denounce “a deep contempt for the value of work”. But what a survey of
the Montaigne institutepublished Thursday, February 2, is that the relationship of the French to work is much more subtle than that.
Because if a large majority (77%) of French people say they are satisfied with their work, almost half (41%) would like their working conditions to be adjusted at the end of their career. “We don’t ask ourselves enough the question of why”, says Bruno Palier, CNRS research director at Sciences Po and author of Reform pensions (Sciences Po Press). The study sets out a few leads and undermines the idea that the French would have become lazy after the confinements.
It is the workload that appears to be the main problem. 60% of the approximately 5,000 working people surveyed consider that it has increased over the past five years. A quarter of employees and 18% of the self-employed even consider it “excessive”. The fault is not a lengthening of working hours (which remains relatively stable over time), but several subjective factors such as poor management, low autonomy at work or too great a psychological burden.
