The cult of zero defects and the perfect employee now invades companies.
This is definitely a strong link, more reactive than a Formula 1, full of ideas and dashing 365 days a year ... and above all, able to withstand the pressure, the increasingly shortened deadlines and shouting, without ever having collapse.
Result: stress, anxiety, burnout (extreme exhaustion), feelings of frustration, depreciation and depression spread.
When this does not lead to suicide, which are estimated, in the absence of studies, between three hundred and five hundred per year. This is to say if the world of work is sick for fifteen years, time of the first investigations.
Why did the company become "the no place to be"?
"A stressed and angry employee gives the image of someone invested, while a zen and happy employee may seem like a fumist," decodes Caroline Duret, psychiatrist and consultant at Stimulus, firm specializing in stress in business.
It must be said that in France, work is associated with a Judeo-Christian symbolism which gives it a quasi-value of redemption: it is necessary to deserve one's job, to climb the ladder thanks to a hard work and to pay the price. In the collective unconscious, even today: "One earns one's bread by the sweat of one's forehead."
Patrick Légeron, CEO of this same firm, goes even further, making the connection with the fact that France was one of the last countries to be interested in pain management strategies and where archaic messages such as "it is necessary to suffer to be beautiful "are still employed.
Another perverse effect: team spirit has changed, and collective work has given way to an individualism that isolates employees, even when they work together.
As the social bond is dislocated, there is less social support. And it is even more painful for those who had to leave their region and their friends for a job. Added to this is the surpassing of oneself, which can turn into angry ambition where one rolls for one's ego, even if it means sacrificing the human and crushing the colleague. Reinforced by the threat of unemployment in the background.
But the hierarchy, with its new objectives of profitability, is not left on the responsibility side: "Many superiors have technical qualifications but lack human and psychological skills.They demand in a cold way and are unable to perceive the state the people they manage, or they forget to value the work done, "comments Caroline Duret.
Poor distribution of roles that causes stress
"France wins the European palm, with more than 50% of absences resulting from stress at work," says Eric Alonso, specialist in business organization at Ineum Consulting.
It must be said that "the very structure of the company itself generates violence", he continues in an overwhelming demonstration: "The roles are often poorly distributed with, for example, two employees for the same function, which creates The objectives are generally poorly defined, absentees are very rarely replaced, the peaks of activity are not anticipated, additional staff are missing, nor does the company form as it should, and worse, it can be estimated that one in five people do not occupy a position that matches their skills at all levels. "
Translation: management positions are not always entrusted to people capable of being empowered, while those that could be valued are not.
The Americans have understood for twenty years that a happy employee is an effective employee. In France, HRDs are just starting to worry about it.
How to stay zen at work?
Failing to rearrange his box, we act from within. We calm the game of his emotions: stress, anger, anxiety, fear, frustrations ...
First, we need to take a step back from the situation. To evaluate it as objectively as possible, because identifying the source of our discomfort helps to avoid an impulsive and aggressive reaction.
It is, indeed, "the emotions felt and not expressed are the most toxic," says Caroline Duret.
Example: our colleague cuts us off systematically in a meeting. Instead of letting our exasperation gain the upper hand, at the risk of ending up expressing ourselves by barking, we pinpoint exactly what makes us nervous and puts things into perspective: "Finally, is it so bad if it stops me? it in a month? Probably not much. " And we speak after him: "Another point seems interesting to me, I would like to add .."
- We restore the communication
When the exchanges are electric and ignite the conflict at the first divergence of opinion, when we do not feel listened to, understood and respected in the company, our instinct puts us in automatic control, and we react either by the fight (aggressive behavior), or by the leak (behavior inhibited).
In both cases, the ambient violence is inflation. Better communication means assertiveness, namely learning to say what you want, what you think, what you feel, the simplest and most directly possible, while respecting the other.
- Abuse of relaxation
In prevention, between two meetings or two phone calls, as often as necessary, for a few seconds or minutes, we adopt a comfortable position and we breathe calmly and deeply, releasing the muscles of the shoulders and jaws.
- We take advantage of the lunch break
To go to the pool, the hammam, do indoor sports, jog or have lunch with friends at the nearby park.
We come back relaxed and able to address without nerves tensions and meetings of the second part of the day.
- We sign up for a non-violent communication course,
During this two-day course, we learn to master the four stages of the process: to observe the situation, to analyze what we feel, to assess our needs ("What would it take to feel better?"), To formulate a request (to the other or to oneself).
It may seem abstract, but we swear it works.
Testimonial: Sarah, 34, Marketing Director , Pharmaceutical Lab
"I love my job, but working made me sick, I understand that some people commit suicide, it could have happened to me if my family had not helped me to bounce back, I often cried in the evening, or I went I collapse, locked in the toilet, with the anguish that can not hear me.In the beginning, I could not keep up the pace, I reported files at home, I had the impression to commit a I was challenging myself, but also all my years of training.
All were taunting me with their "time sheets" and their ultra-low yield. When there is a project, each of us must make proposals to the company, as for a call for tenders, and it is the best who wins the file.
So, everyone is wary, and when someone becomes nice, we wonder if it is not strategic. In fact, it's like in "Loft Story", where everyone was plotting to eliminate each other.
As we work in open space, the atmosphere is execrable, we whisper on the phone. Some days, I hide behind my plant and my computer to breathe: I feel all the time observed and I know that if I look tired, others will say: "She flanks, it'll be good for we are attacking his land. " In one year, I had lost 8 kg and regularly used eczema.
Pushed by my family, I reacted, just when I was about to give up. Either I let myself be crushed, and I had studied for nothing, either I affirmed myself, I became a strategist and I no longer accepted compromise. Today, things are better; to believe that I became as psychopathic as the others. In any case, it's not the life I dreamed about, but what else to do? "
