It’s Monday at the office, and yet there is an air of Friday afternoon in the premises of Welcome to the Jungle, a company with 270 employees, located in the Sentier district, in Paris. The floors, laid out as a “flex office”, are almost deserted. A young woman greets us, dragging her wheeled suitcase behind her. But where are the people? In Nantes, Marseille, Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), in Perche. In teleworking.
In this new post-Covid-19 era, the employees of this big start-up specializing in online job advertisements (with an average age of 30) are only required to come to the office for one day per month. The rest of the time, they frequent the premises at their convenience. “As long as they reach their goals, people organize their day as they want, work from where they want. If someone wants to start their day from home and then come to the office at noon, it’s no longer taboo. If he wants to go swimming and work later, that’s up to him.” exhibits Pierre-Gaël Pasquiou, one of the partners.
Many Welcome to the Jungle employees took advantage of these new rules to return the keys to their Parisian apartment. Especially since, for the mandatory monthly day at the office, organized at the level of each team, the company pays for the train and the night in a hotel in Paris. “That day, we take advantage of it to maximize the effects of everyone’s presence, with meetings, workshops, a joint lunch, an aperitif in the evening”, continues Pierre-Gaël Pasquiou.
Commercial at Welcome to the Jungle, Constance Goncalves dropped her 30 square meters near the Saint-Martin canal and bought a 60 square meters in Marseille in March, « rue d’Endoume, in the 7e, like many Parisians. In this city, I feel like I’m on vacation all year round. At noon, I can go for a walk on the beach. » He misses the office sometimes, a little less since “Welcome” rents him space in a coworking on the Old Port. “It allows you to find, a few days a week, an atmosphere, colleagues. We are six of the company to have moved to Marseille, for the quality of life “, says this graduate of a master’s degree in communication.
“A management that does not flinch”
After the experience of teleworking during the confinements, the mobility and the freedom of organization that it triggered, the return to the life of before has become impossible. The genie came out of the lamp. Experts interviewed by The world confirm this: without the possibility of teleworking, without flexibility in the organization of this, it is difficult to attract or retain young graduates, at a time when the job market places them in a position of strength, with major tensions in certain areas of competence.
You have 75.26% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.