Some executives no longer share the values of the companies in which they work and refuse to be mere pawns in a voracious economy. However, out of obligation, desire or conviction that it is possible to change things from within, many young graduates continue to join polluting companies and occupy abstract positions. Author of Power, happiness, climate (Du Détour, 224 pages, 19.50 euros), Laurent Polet co-founded the Primaveras school, specializing in supporting executives in search of meaning. It calls for transforming these paths of excellence subservient to the quest for corporate profitability.
Those who have the greatest number of assets on the labor market – the bac + 5 from the Grandes Ecoles – today claim the loss of meaning in their professional life. How did we arrive at such a paradox?
Let’s deconstruct the representations, anchored in our collective unconscious, on the working conditions of these intellectual elites. Studying today would be the condition for professional and social success in France, a Holy Grail for accessing fulfilling work and escaping precarious jobs. The reality is less happy. The balance between work and private life is disrupted. Stress is omnipresent, to the point that burnout at the start of a career no longer surprises us. The nature of managers’ responsibilities is changing and their contribution to society is being questioned. Young graduates fresh out of their studies criticize the destinies for which they were trained and opt for radical retraining, refusing positions that would contribute to maintaining the climate crisis. The path mapped out for graduates has turned into a broken path.
The disobedience of young executives, which manifests itself through virulent speeches or radical bifurcations, remains a marginal phenomenon. So why be interested in it?
These highly publicized speeches are only the visible part of systemic upheavals. To deny their most expressive manifestation is also to deny a more discreet but diffuse movement. Admittedly, the bifurcation is not within everyone’s reach. A large part of this intellectual elite chooses a relatively traditional professional orientation and makes remuneration its final criterion of choice. Nevertheless, among this educated youth, there are many who completely adhere to the values of climate preservation, even if they do not express it vehemently, because we are talking about a discreet and docile population, educated in respect for authority.
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