French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic

The New York Times ^ | 8/14/04 | Craig S. Smith

[ppaul]

ARIS, Aug. 13 - Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and openly embrace sloth.

Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy of "active disengagement" - calculated loafing - to escape the horrors of disinterested endeavor.

"Imitate me, midlevel executives, white-collar workers, neo-slaves, the damned of the tertiary sector," Ms. Maier calls in her slim volume, which is quickly becoming a national best seller. She argues that France's ossified corporate culture no longer offers rank-and-file employees the prospect of success, so, "Why not spread gangrene through the system from inside?"

The book is a counterpoint to efforts by the country's center-right government to repair the damage done to French work habits by decades of Socialist administration, which enacted a 35-hour workweek. It is gaining in popularity just as the International Monetary Fund is urging Europeans to work longer and harder to stiffen their soft economies.

The French already work less than people in most other developed countries - on average, nearly 300 fewer hours a year than Americans, according to one study.

In many ways, Ms. Maier is typical of France's intelligentsia, overeducated and underemployed. She studied economics and international relations at the country's elite National Foundation of Political Sciences, or Sciences-Po, before earning a doctorate in psychoanalysis.

But she works just 20 hours a week writing dry economic reports at the state electric utility, Électricité de France, for which she is paid about $2,000 a month. Sitting in the living room of her Left Bank apartment, decorated with colorful abstract art, huge stereo speakers and a bicycle, Ms. Maier, 40, insists that her polemic, though tongue in cheek, has a principled point. "Can we work in a corporation and contest the system," she asks, "or must we be blind and docile and adhere to everything that the corporation says?"

Part of the problem, according to Ms. Maier, is that French companies are frozen by strict social norms.

"Everything depends on what school you went to and what diploma you have," she said, arguing that advancement is slow and comes less from ambition than from endurance. "French corporations," she says, "are not meritocracies."

Workers remain at their jobs until retirement, stymieing the promotion of those below them, she argues, yet a system of patronage and stiff legal protections make it difficult for employers to fire anyone. Years of such stagnation in France's hierarchy-obsessed society have produced elaborate rituals to keep people busy.

"Work is organized a little like the court of Louis XIV, very complicated and very ritualized so that people feel they are working effectively when they are not," she said.

Her solution? Rather than keep up what she sees as an exhausting charade, people who dislike what they do should, as she puts it, discreetly disengage. If done correctly - and her book gives a few tips, such as looking busy by always carrying a stack of files - few co-workers will notice, and those who do will be too worried about rocking the boat to complain. Given the difficulty of firing employees, she says, frustrated superiors are more likely to move such subversive workers up than out.

The book's title is a play on "Bonjour Tristesse," the title of the 1954 best-selling novel by Françoise Sagan that recounted a worldly young woman's cynical approach to relationships and sex. Ms. Maier's book, subtitled "The Art and Necessity of Doing the Least Possible in a Corporation," is concerned with a more mundane malaise.

With chapters titled "The Morons Who Are Sitting Next To You" and "Beautiful Swindles," it declares that corporate culture is nothing more than the "crystallization of the stupidity of a group of people at a given moment."

Her employer of 12 years was not amused. Irritated that she identified herself as an Électricité de France employee on the back cover of her book, company officials wrote her a stern letter accusing her of inattention at meetings, leaving work early and "spreading gangrene from within," just as her book advocates. They demanded that she appear for a disciplinary hearing, though the original Aug. 17 date has been pushed back to September. That's because Ms. Maier is going on vacation.

"They want to make an example of me," Ms. Maier said.

When she received the letter from her employer, she did what any French worker would do: she took it to the company union and asked them to help in her defense. The union, already engaged in a bitter battle with management over a partial privatization scheme, took the case to the news media, where it received instant and widespread attention.

Without the company's maneuver, Ms. Maier's book would probably have quietly gone out of print. Instead, her publisher, Éditions Michalon, sold out the first printing of 4,000 copies and has ordered three successive reprints in the past three months: 15,000 copies have been printed so far and, having apparently struck a chord with the country's work force, demand only appears to be growing.

She said the reaction of co-workers has been mixed, with some outraged by her thankless attitude. "They think it scandalous," she said, "like I spit in my soup."

[OldCorps]

The author is some guy named Craig. Surely the photograph you posted is some skank women (looks like a druggie to me). Is the photo really a guy?

[nwrep]

Dude, I am talking about the author of the French sloth book, not the guy who wrote the NYT article. I was making a point of how fugly the French author is.

[asgardshill]

The title of this article is libelous to real sloths.

They survive quite well in the wild without any government assistance at all. Some even manage to be entertaining to the rest of us while doing so.

[3catsanadog]

And the liberals are embracing the socialist attitude here.

Unfortunately, I see hints of this kind of work attitude creeping into American work ethics.

Employers are faced with so many laws so that everything will be "fair" that many times, incentive to work harder and better and have a good work ethic is a waste of time.

I see co-workers doing things that would've gotten them fired post haste 20-30 years ago.

Who gets merit raises anymore? No, we have to be fair so we get a piddly little cost of living raise so no one's self-esteem is hurt.

This evolves into raising the minimum wage to unreasonable levels - causing cutbacks in hiring and inability to give raises to those who really deserve them.

[bert]

She apparently is not familiar with the Steel Workers. They have earning wages while minimising work to a fine art.

Anything beneficial to the company is hated as bad as Bush.

Work is a game......what can I not do today.

Having ruined their own industry, steel workers have branched out to any company with employees dumb enough to certify them.

[sweetliberty]

"Sounds like the U.S. federal and state gubbamint employees."

HEY!

While your point is well made, some states, such as Arkansas, make it a particularly attractive option. Here you have a third of the people living off the state, a third of the people working for the state and the remaining third make up the rest of the work force...including those jobs done by illegals, of which there are many. Arkansas has the most rapidly growing population of illegals in the country. The benefits with many jobs are sadly lacking or nonexistent. State law here doesn't even require breaks, other than lunch.

I was happy to get my state job, after 5 years of a job where I worked my butt off in horrible working conditions. After the first year, the company yanked everybody's insurance benefits except for upper management. I made enough to keep the bills paid, but not enough to ever get ahead, and I d**n sure couldn't afford to get sick or, heaven forbid, die. At least now, I don't have that worry so much.

That said, there is plenty to criticize about the state, and I'm sure the same can be said of any other state government as well. If an efficient and cost effective way can be found to do something, you can bet it was by accident and you can count on them to correct it post haste. If something starts to make sense, they will change it until it doesn't, and their answer to everything in the state of Arkansas is to raise taxes some more. The corrupt RATs here never met a tax they didn't love. We already have some of the highest and silliest taxes I've ever seen anywhere, and yet there is seldom, if ever, an opportunity that slips by that they don't get the issue of more taxes on the ballot, and if they can find a way around presenting it to the voters at all by calling it something else, they will. The state is always complaining about being poor, but they never seem to think it might be because we are taxed to death.

One of the supervisors in my office always tells me that I have to learn to quit trying to use common sense because there isn't any and that although our mission statement implies compassion, he says that there is only room for compassion when the state's @$$ is covered...thanks to the lawyers.

Any other Arkansans, state workers or otherwise, have anything to add?

[sweetliberty]

"Don`t know if it`s true like that for everyone in France, but if it is, I don`t know how the hell that country functions."

Foreign money and ill-gotten gains, although sometimes they're the same thing.

[Betaille]

I actually applaud this womans message. She is merely pointing out the futility of working hard in such a controlled economy. In an entrepeneurial or ownership society, it is worth it to work hard. In a socialist economy, there is absolutely no reason to excel and there is very little economic freedom, hence no opportunity to benefit yourself.
She is just pointing out the rational frustration of somebody who is working for the benefit of somebody else(the state).

[Cacique]

ping

[TheBattman]

You forgot our tax-loving REPUBLICAN governor.

[FITZ]

I cannot wait for France to be a thoroughly backward turd world nation

Then they can demand to immigrate to the USA after they let their own country reach third world status -- and we'll have to take them in if we're going to be consistent.

[Cacique]

I cannot wait for France to be a thoroughly backward turd world nation

Won't happen, once the Moose Limbs become the majority in twenty years they will simply enslave the Kaffirs and make them work 80 hours a week. And of course we all know that arabs have a propensity for the very latest 7th century technology. That will keep the Frogs very competitive exporting grape juice, humus and baba ganush.

[mountainfolk]

Arkansas has some of the richest corporations in America not only paying taxes here but donating enough money to various institutions to run a small country. Why do we remain, or are considered to be, a poor state? Just to mention a few reasons---RATS dominate state politics. The political shenanigans of some state office holders are frequent and the only consequence for getting called to public attention is amusing commentary by a tolerant electorate. The political solution to all problems is to raise taxes. The voters accept this state of affairs because so many citizens work for the state govt and their families depend on that income. Also, there are the welfare programs which provide the same service. The one really good thing that has happened economically for Arkansas is the leadership that Gov Huckabee has provided in getting I-40 completely repaired and cleaned up, from Oklahoma to Tenn. It previously was awful to drive on and trash littered the highway. Under Huckabee, Republicans also got Hwy 540 completed after years of Clinton and his crew holding up construction in order to keep business in Little Rock. Once the hwy was opened the Fayetteville area has boomed, from housing construction to new business. Wherever it exists, the socialist mentality, inherent in RATS, impedes progress. The rot is not only manifested in a material way, but much worse, in the mindset of the citizenry. Socialism undercuts initiative, and self confidence, and breeds slackers and parasites. IMO our state is dominated by the 40 percent of citizens who, as Neil Boortz says, vote for a living. There isn't much hope for France but Arkansas has been resuscitated before and with new people moving in big time, we should fairly soon get another shot at conservative government.

[dueler88]

Heck, even the 20th century Soviets worked harder than the 21st Century French. Granted, the Soviets' motivation was to NOT end up dead or in Siberia, but at least they actually worked to support their government. The French apparently have no such desire. I love France, as a life-long student of architecture, art, culture and history, and I have met some wonderful French people. It pains me to see them rotting themselves into oblivion. I wish that they could cut off that cultural gangrene. But lacking that, I wish they would just keep the stench to themselves.

[Mr.Atos]

I get your point. One could argue the difference is that 'muzzle of a gun' which is missing from French Socialism, is equally as immoral as a negligent existence. What they (french sloths) might notice soon enough, is that an overall decline in national production will limit their societal benies further degrading their general quality of life to that of third-world blight... individual effort relating to personal well-being thus extricated from their collective mentality, achievement is pointless. Muslims, on the other hand are an extremely motivated people pursuant of their own life goals - equally collective and more fundamental. They will most certainly find opportunity, where the frenchman (if there is such a thing) forgos effort; ultimately earning the culture that has been abandoned, by forgeing it to their new image... An Islamic French State. The sword and Sharia will prove just as motivating to french sloths as the gun was to Soviet bolsheviks.

The sloths may find solice in their latinous voluptuousness, and gallant laziness, but while they eat and make love with their faces, industrious Muslim chickens will be building culturally exclusive roosts.

Atos