udoes not “bubble of well-being”. A “haven of peace” where we find ergonomic furniture, inspiring decoration, a “soothing olfactory and sound atmosphere”, and plants. Where are we? In a hotel spa, waiting for a hot stone massage?
Unfortunately no: upon closer inspection, we discover a box full of small beads bearing the “:)” smiley, or a button playing a playlist and a special perfume. It’s not a joke, it’s a provider which suggests that HR managers reorganize their break rooms into… “good mood spaces”.
1,000 leagues away, at the RATP, employees responsible for RER maintenance have been testing futuristic “exoskeletons” since the start of the year, to ease their posture when they repair train doors.
What do these two examples have in common? They claim to improve “well-being at work”, one by fighting against the psychosocial risks which invade the mental health of office workers, the other by limiting musculoskeletal disorders among handlers or craftsmen.
QVCT does not make you dream
According to Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
However, occupational health management is not new. This field became formalized in the 1970s, originally to talk about the working conditions of workers. Little by little, specialists began to talk about “quality of life at work” (QVT), extending working conditions to organizations, schedules, then work-life balance. In France, a national inter-professional agreement is even devoted to QVT in 2013, then in 2020 to quality of life and working conditions (QVCT).
“QVCT” doesn’t make you dream. Recent years have seen the world of prevention – and especially employers – prefer “well-being at work”. Its definition is very broad: according to the National Institute for Research and Security, it is a “general feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment in and through work which goes beyond the absence of harm to health”.
Playing on this vagueness, actions in well-being at work often fall short of the mark. In The Servitudes of well-being at work. Health impacts (Erès, 2021), a collective work produced under the direction of Sophie Le Garrec, researchers describe the drifts of health management towards vague injunctions for the personal development of employees. Based on smileys – always be wary of smileys in a professional context – or impersonal slogans displayed on walls like “find the true essence of yourself”…
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