” Once you have entered the Joe Family France, you will be able to travel » ; “You have a first conclusive experience in tourism” ; “If you come by bike, you are also entitled to a green allowance! » ; “We call you Sherlock Holmes for your attention to detail, we will bring you a real human experience”. These sentences do not come from a new board game, but from four advertisements to recruit a barista, a marketing manager, an administrative agent in Paris or a maintenance employee in a Vendée campsite. Would familiarity have become the ultimate in recruitment newspeak?
After analyzing all the ads published on its French platform in 2022, the research department of the American search engine Indeed, specializing in the labor market, published its verdict on February 15: the familiarity of familiarity has almost doubled in three years in job offers. Attempt by recruiters to adapt to the supposed change in the relationship to work? Youthism? Willingness to evict seniors? Whatever the reason, the job site sees it as a “emerging trend”.
Many recruiters are convinced that, in a job market characterized by an unemployment rate of 7.2%, the balance of power is now unfavorable to them. The familiarity would be a way to regain the advantage against the valuable candidate, without giving up the ambitions of the company on the level of the profile sought. During the Covid period, a few restaurateurs faced with so-called “poor” professions had tried it successfully to find the rare pearl.
Formal formalities remain popular
Also use familiarity to get closer… Certain sectors of activity have a more pronounced taste than others for the familiar style: about 10% of ads in marketing (10.3%), media (10.2%) and IT development (8.9%) gargle “you” and “you”. Sectors that are massively aimed at young people, sometimes mimicking their mode of expression, like those parents who strive to practice the language of their teenagers.
A waste of time, because the familiarity does not appeal more to young people than to old people when it comes from a stranger. The Qapa polling institute, which questioned employees in 2016 on the use of familiarity and formal address at work, revealed that nearly three quarters of employees, regardless of their age, were “embarrassed” to be spoken to by a stranger at work. In the office, the “tu” was only in common use between colleagues and with his bosses from the age of 25 and not beyond the age of 64, in a logic of integration into the collective. We address our honorable colleague who will soon no longer be with us, just like the young beginner during his trial period.
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