At first glance, the two buildings of the LDLC group have everything of the classic headquarters of a large French company: fairly sober offices, in open space, on the outskirts of a metropolis, near Lyon, in Limonest, a green roof, relaxation with beanbags, leisure equipment (gym, arcade machines and even bowling alleys)… And executives, lots of executives: 30% of the overall workforce. The majority of them work at the headquarters, which houses 600 of the 1,100 employees of the high-tech online sales group.
Whether they are leaders or local managers, they have also been involved in the move to the four-day week, without a reduction in salary and with a reduction in working hours, implemented by LDLC since January 25, 2021. An exception in the French landscape. Pauline Grimaud, sociologist from the Center for Employment and Labor Studies, studied nearly 300 agreements signed in 2023 in France. She notes that“a significant part of company agreements for the four-day week exclude executives, in particular those on a day package”who do not count their hours, because their working time is measured in days, with a maximum of 218 per year. This method of organizing work concerned 14.7% of full-time private sector employees in 2021, and half of executives, according to the Ministry of Labor.
At LDLC, ordinary employees are required to work only 32 hours each week, and it is planned that the entire company will align itself with this objective… Including executives on fixed-day contracts. For Laurent de la Clergerie, founder of the company which bears his initials, it was about “exclude no one” : “It’s a change in balance, a letting go on a company-wide scale. Managers were the first to be afraid that their colleagues would do nothing in their absence on the fifth day. However, it could well wait twenty-four hours to have information. »
It wasn’t all easy. First obstacle, a day package agreement being signed individually, each employee had to be convinced. The few reluctant employees were among the managers: “It was funny to me that this happened from the managementremember Jean-Claude Chaix, in purchasing for fifteen years. The first question was how to squeeze five days into four, already five was complicated. » In 2015, day packages worked around 200 hours more per year than other French employees, or four hours more per week.
You have 68.24% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.