After Covid, the French got into a serious conflict with work and office. Zoom meetings, the “Flex office” and a young generation that does not aspire to earn money but to live in harmony are changing working habits in France. Nine million people in the workforce are “teleworking”.

the Parisians they rent gardens on the outskirts for 70 euros an hourto escape from a city that suffocates them, because it is more densely populated than others in the European Union and they live in smaller spaces.

According to an Ipsos survey for Ring Central, one in three French people changed their career plans after the health crisis and one in four employees adopted the same attitude.

Habits and attitudes towards work were radically transformed after the epidemic. In 1990, 60 percent of French people considered work “very important” in their life. According to the Jean Jaures foundation, today only 24 percent have this idea.

“Work today is less an indicator of social inclusion or a lever of happiness,” interpreted Romain Bendavid, director of the IFOP Corporate Specialization and Work Experience.

“This perception is homogeneous, according to the different categories of employees. The differences are also small based on age, proving that it is not a generational phenomenon but an underlying trend ”, she clarified.

Farewell to presidentialism

The French have no motivation to go to work. Many employers want to upgrade to a four-day week, but none are thrilled. The problem is going to the office: nobody wants to go. Office buildings are converted into apartmentsStep by step.

“For wage earners, presidentialism is an obsolete notion. They want to be free to manage their time and workload. Personal and family well-being is more important than work, ”Bendavid explained.

There is no manpower available in France. Hoteliers, industrialists, bars, factories are desperate and are putting pressure on employment agencies to become immigrant workers.

The French do not want to work in these areas or follow strict schedules. Much less work on a factory production line: the workers are mostly immigrants.

mass resignation

In the first quarter of 2022, no less than 520,000 people have left their jobs in France. Never seen. The French state and the companies contribute to the “training” of those who leave. It is a social obligation.

In this conversion, professionals are not interested in earning the same money as before, but rather in finding A new way of living: enjoy what they do, not work in large companies, be treated well, that what they do does not contradict their values. They go in search of what they call “harmony” or “wind of freedom”.

“I left,” admits Edward, who had found work in an embassy as a political scientist just a year ago. “Nobody does anything, nobody wants to work or is interested. Worse: nobody cares if you do it or not, if it’s right or wrong. I’m bored. We’re different. I’m 30. I’ll cycle around Eastern Europe before the war comes, “he confides.

Edward can do this because for two years he will be accompanied by unemployment insurance French and if you want, you can “reconvert” or do a Masters or PhD. The company and the state pay for this “training”.

But they also don’t have a problem working in a restaurant or taking care of the kids if they need more money.

new priorities

The other phenomenon isstop quietlyg ”or“ silent resignation ”. A phenomenon embraced by those between 20 and 40 years old and easy to spot on social media.

Work is no longer the focus of concern. It is not a social ladder for this new generation.

Covid, confinement in a cramped place, has allowed the French to confirm that their health is the most important thing and must be preserved. His family, being with his children is a priority. It is another paradigm in the making.

“In job interviews, candidates talk about a balance between personal and professional life. They don’t want to take responsibility, much less as a manager, ”explained Adrien Scemama, head of Talent.com in France.

Feeling good is today the most important idea for all generations in France.

no spirit of company

The seniors The French believe that “intimacy has been lost” with these “loft” models in the offices, all together. “The team and corporate spirit of previous generations has vanished”, they denounce.

There are no weekends between colleagues, that resistance of the new generations to “not wear the company shirt” and “lack of enthusiasm for work”.

The drink between employees after the office disappeared in the French work scene.

“Coworking”

The new generation prefers “coworking”. A mezzanine space, with other young people like them, independent, with a coffee machine, a microwave, where they compare, meet new people, they can bring the children if the kindergarten doesn’t work, it is more flexible and they feel they work more than in the office.

Others lose their confinement, when they have gone around the world in escape from confinement, worked from the Canary Islands or Lisbon in the morning and surfed in the afternoon. The free cast increased by 126 percent in France.

“I want to decide my projects without financial pressure. Whether it’s working two hours a week, going on vacation for a month, starting a new company, ”explained Víctor, who worked in finance, created his own economic fund and now doesn’t plan to return to a position. managerial. Being free and independent is your project.

Those who have money replace material bonds with human ones. They go on vacation to their friends’ house, go wild camping, go back to the car stop travel and never take a plane because they are environmentalists.

flee to the suburbs

With less greenery than other cities and a higher population density, Paris becomes suffocating for this new post-Covid population. Many have found an escape: they can rent gardens in the suburbs or in the region and go there with friends or family.

Jardins-prives.com is the first private garden site to rent in France, including orchards, which invite you to share. They call it “the Airbnb of the gardens”.

They also have swimming pools and small events, birthdays, baby showers, barbecues can be organized. Prices can vary from 70 euros per hour, 280 euros per day. In the Chevreuse valley, in the southwest of Paris, you can rent a 2,000-meter garden from 10:00 to 23:00 for 1,500 euros, ideal for parties.

There are at least 1,170 gardens for rent and 70% of these are located in and around Paris. Before the pandemic, there were only 230 gardens on offer.

Habits have changed. 40 percent of French families were unable to go on vacation this summer. Many paid for an afternoon in a rented garden.

The website was launched by Pascale Krieff, who worked in a financial company and had lived in Paris for two years. “What I missed the most was resting in my garden after work,” she said.

There are platforms in Britain to rent gardens. But in Paris there is a density of 21,000 people per square kilometer and only 8.8 percent have green space.

London has a density of 5,518 people per square km and the green index is 12.7%, according to a study by the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

According to Jardins-Prives, bookings increased by 436% last week. It simply coincided when restrictive energy and heating measures were announced in Paris, due to the war in Ukraine.

Paris, correspondent

CB