Skip to main content

Bonjour paresse: de l'art et de la nécessité d'en faire le moins possible en entreprise


This book is like, wow, hard to interpret. It's kind of like getting a glimpse inside of France's psychosis of work. Corinne Maier, an economist (part time, mind you) for EDF, France's state energy company, goes out of her way to pillory the French business establishment. As a professor once told me, "this is just venality." Of course, Maier is a hilarous writer and she makes me think of a particular archetype of the hilarous Frenchwoman.

Now, I'm sure there is much to pillory in these horrible corporations where people are condemned to "neoslavery". In the United States, I would say that the bloom is very much off the corporate rose as well--difference is, people's response here is much different than the one outlined in Bonjour paresse. Of course, in France, it's nearly impossible for an employer to fire an employee, so the solutions outlined by Maier make a sort of twisted sense: rot out the company from the inside, get by without expending any effort, ape the latest management jargon and save the "essential" of your energy for your own personal pursuits.

Still, as I read the book in my role as an American employee, I can't help but think I couldn't live this way. I would rather be part of the solution--if the company is hypocritical, help change it. If that's not possible, vote with your feet in pursuit of a better organization, or best yet, start your own. Which is really what she's done herself by becoming a best-selling author, even if she's kept her part time gig at EDF. As-tu dit «hypocrite», chérie?

By Corinne Maier
ISBN# 2841862313

English Version:

Popular posts from this blog

An Army of Davids

So, I've been spending some time with Glenn Reynold's book (Glenn being of course the seminal and highly influential Instapundit ), and I must say that it gives me lots of language I can use to talk about phenomena that are easily observable right now. I think you could say that Glenn Reynolds has done for technology what Virginia Postrel did with design topics . Which is to say, they beat the drum and say, hey, look at what this democratization of knowledge can do for you! In that vein, the book is really pretty visionary, pointing out the magic of the internet age. And I for one see it as magical. You know how Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pa in Little Town on the Prairie said to Laura that it was an amazing time to be alive (that was in the 1890s)? I've been actively thinking that to myself for the past few years, and An Army of Davids gives me ample evidence to back that up with its talk of citizen empowerment and the "comfy chair revolution." The theme of ...
Read more

Public sector information design

Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.
Read more

Get Out of Your Own Way

This book, by Robert K. Cooper, was on the library's newly arrived shelf. It's pretty good, although if you read biz books a lot, there's a lot you'll want to skim. Still, the principles he talks about are good to think on. The subtitle of the book is "the five keys to surpassing everyone's expectations." These keys are: 1. Direction, not motion 2. Focus, not time 3. Capacity, not conformity 4. Energy, not effort 5. Impact, not intentions Each key has three or four supporting chapters that talk about subprinciples. Some things that I identified with from key one is that a) "good and great are the enemies of possible," a quote Cooper attributes to his grandfather. It's pretty self-explanatory though. The other thing is he talks about "what's automatic, accelerates." Basically, if you can put effort into something until it becomes automatic, you've won the battle. So focus resources on issues and behaviors that will eventually...
Read more