Enzo Poultreniez calls them ” shooting Stars “. They are, like him, collaborators of the Ecologists movement. They arrived during an electoral campaign in which they invested themselves without restraint, to the point of exhaustion. “We will never see them again”he concludes.
Today at the head of the Association of Collaborators of Ecologist and Related Elected Officials (Aceva), he says he is worried about the health of these temporary employees but also, more broadly, for that of all the movement’s collaborators, many of whom would be affected by “overcommitment”.
He himself went to the end of his limits. In 2015 he was one of those “martyrs” ready to “sacrifice for the cause”. Victim of burnout, he explains today that he took a step back and learned to say no.
Nothing of an exception
Mr. Poultreniez’s feelings are confirmed by a survey carried out by sociologist Simon Cottin-Marx in 2023 on the working conditions of employees of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (renamed Les Ecologistes), at the request of Aceva, and of which The world delivers the results exclusively. It shows that, if employees find meaning at work, they complain about doing a job that “overflows”.
68% say they are solicited outside of working hours, which has a negative influence on their private life (47%) and their health (46%); 64% say they are concerned about the situation of colleagues, and 66% say they know colleagues who have left their jobs due to suffering or exhaustion at work.
The situation encountered at Les Ecologistes is not an exception. It can be observed in other political movements, unions, associations. Activist structures can sometimes be the setting for painful work situations and represent a risk to the health of their employees.
The strong commitment of employees to their work is a first explanation. The vast majority of employees are activists who espouse a cause. “At the start, there is the flame”, summarizes sociologist Matthieu Hély. Their involvement is all the stronger as the border is blurred between salaried missions and activism (especially when we work alongside volunteers who are also very involved), and as dedication is presented as a norm. “For example, it is very hard to say no when actions are proposed by my employer – and, therefore, for the cause – in the evening or on the weekend”recognizes an employee in the humanitarian sector.
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