le FIGARO.-“Grief of work” means a new form of suffering combining emotional dimension and professional. But can se two terms go toger?
Isabelle Méténier. -y apparently have no proximity to each or because first evokes sadness which, normally, we are protected when we are caught in a professional occupation. But, in reality, I see a large chain that starts from heavy work and leads to grief. In this sense, it is wrong to say “We must not mix affective at work”, because it is impossible! Each of us is one, with heart, body and soul inseparable. We cannot “cut” one of se dimensions. And our accomplishment also comes from meaning we give to our activity. Those who feel that y are “missing out on ir lives” because of ir professional daily life are finding mselves depreciating.
“The accomplishment we seek is to be at service of what makes us live”
but can’t we work with a certain detachment?
Of course, some people who are bored in ir work have taken party to do what interests m (sport, painting …) in ir leisure time and thus arrive to “function” without getting depressed. For those who have seen, in ir childhood, one of ir parents live like this, it is easier. But I think that we all have dreams, deep aspirations, more or less conscious, and that accomplishment we seek is that of being in service of what makes us live, wher it is self mechanics or teaching of a Language!
What makes relationship at work more fragile?
When work has a repair function-re has been a failure in his love life or company created by our parents has gone bankrupt, for example- person is vulnerable because it has very strong existential stakes. Professional life n allows to rebuild or “revalorize” from a narcissistic point of view, but it is more “risky”. When something gets jammed, when re is a threat in service where we work, n disease or collapse can occur. Of course, crises are always re to reveal something that we did not see until n, and y are mostly opportunities to find oneself … That’s why it’s better to be aware of energy drops that sometimes lurk, be attentive to any devitalization, because people who find mselves in burn-out or in severe depression often say: “I have not seen it coming …”
But what is it that also promotes such crises?
The dehumanization of links to work. The acceleration of productions, fact of having to be multitasking, dominance of profitability, competition have hardened relations. People have less time to talk or just say hello, and especially y are isolated. An evaluation interview often faces managers who do not know what to say concrete to ir employees, Kafkaesque procedures are applied without an eyebrow … I think of this young businessman who, having brutally lost her bror, was absent from his company for three months. On her return, she manages to achieve 80% of her goals. Well, she was not entitled to her annual bonus. When she complained to her manager, he said, “It’s not going to make you your bror!”
How can we resist this?
It’s a long time, it’s difficult. Some sometimes give up ir ambitions and have to put everything flat in ir lives, or dare to look at ir fears. I believe very much in exchange groups, speaking, because we can relearn a solidarity that is lost at work and regain hope in human bond.
