The book. In the 1930s, the philosopher Simone Weil (1909-1943) decided to work in a factory. Throughout her experiences in various industrial companies (Alsthom, Renault), she conducts a careful observation of the working world. Faced with the condition of employees, she explains: « Only one thing makes monotony bearable, it is a light of eternity, it is beauty. » “For her, beauty is emancipatory, it’s a social need”analyzes the sociologist Jean-Philippe Bouilloud.
What place does beauty occupy in work, in business? What is its function ? Why is it an employee expectation? Do organizations take it up? Through his test Can do a good job (Erès), he goes in search of beauty, its expressions, its purposes, in craftsmen’s workshops, the open spaces of service companies, industrial chains.
The carpenter who makes a beautiful piece, the mechanic who adjusts an engine to perfection, the scientist who solves a problem… Beauty can appear everywhere, explains the author, whether in the aesthetics of a production, the precision gesture, the satisfaction of a job well done or even in the benevolence that sometimes shines through in professional relations.
If this concept of beauty is rarely mentioned, Mr. Bouilloud nevertheless sees it as one of the motivations of the workers, alongside “the search for income, social status or connections with others. [Notre activité] is crossed right through by another dimension, that of our sensations and aesthetics., he assures. A dimension that he likens to an act of resistance that aims to be liberating for the worker. It is indeed, in the eyes of the author, a way of opposing: “A job well done against the race for profitability; the “beautiful work” against standardization at low cost, the beautiful gesture as a critical act on the part of a manager or an executive. »
Meaning and value
Faced with deplorable working conditions, a job well done can make it possible to “to get rid of interest”, sometimes in defiance of the rules. This may be the case of “caregiver who spends more time than expected with a patient to briefly keep him company”or of “the telephone platform operator who resists the injunctions of her hierarchy to really solve the problem of the customer she has online, or to sell him a service that really corresponds to his interest”.
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