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The French Work Ethic
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Sarkozy says it's time the
French got back to work
of TheColumnists.com
The French undertook a noble experiment six years ago when their Socialist government established the 35-hour work week. It has been strictly enforced by police who raid offices--including a famous foray into IBM France--to force employees to go home to their families.
To some, who enjoy more quality time, this has been a dream; to others, who are trying to globalize their businesses, it has been a nightmare.
Now it’s all coming undone as the current conservative government tries to get the French back to work like everybody else. President Nicolas Sarkozy calls the shortened work hours the country’s biggest economic blunder in the past three decades--and that’s saying something. He announced at a recent press conference that he wants to remove this “straightjacket” by the end of 2008. It shook up France although the outside world seemed more interested in his love life, which also figured in the press conference.
My first-hand experience a few years ago trying to get the French to work harder puts me in the Sarkozy camp. In my 18 months as editor of the leading IT weekly in France I had 75 unmanageable French men and women reporting to me. Getting the paper out on time was a huge battle every week.
My message was new to them: Work hard and the company will do well, which in turn will serve your personal interests. I said advancement would be possible for those who demonstrated commitment. One young journalist took pity on me and explained privately after the meeting how the French mind works: “You tell me exactly what you want me to do, and I’ll do it if I feel like it.”
What I had missed was that French commitment to work is a very tenuous relationship. What matters is not work life but one’s outside life.
At one memorable editorial meeting, I complained that too much copy was coming in late. I announced that henceforth writers who missed a deadline would get a “faute professionelle”, or black mark, on their record. One of my department editors puffed up like a giant frog, folded his papers and walked out, saying over his shoulder, “I have never heard such nonsense.” Another department head joined him “in solidarity”, a favorite French excuse for not working. The first one resigned a couple of weeks later. The other hung around longer than I did.
The 35-hour work week suited this mentality. But the government’s motivation was different. The idea was to force companies to create more jobs, thereby lowering unemployment. The bottom line: companies would have to bear the cost, rendering them even less competitive on global markets than they already were.
Sarkozy has now declared that the 35-hour work week has failed to achieve any positive result, so it has to go. Labor unions will fight this rollback of their benefits but Sarkozy is determined.
His press conference made big headlines for all his pronouncements on measures to jump start economic growth--his chief aim as president.
He must have been disappointed, then, to note that CNN only ran and reran a 10-second clip of his refusal to announce when or whether he will marry his new flame, model and singer Carla Bruni. The betting in the popular press is February 9.
©2008 by Michael Johnson. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Jan. 28, 2008.
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