If many young adults have experienced the various confinements as trauma, some, mostly privileged and well educated, saw opportunities for happy rebounds. This is the case of “Breakers” in search of meaning, registered in the free online programs offered by La Brèche – a community “For lost people who want to step into the world afterwards right now”. “This health crisis is now or never for radical life changes”, thus advocates Aurore Le Bihan, one of its founders.
Of course, the lockdowns alone did not provoke the desire for a new life. Rather than a revealer, the breachers speak of a “Accelerator” – the context being conducive to introspection, to distancing from an often busy daily life. The seeds of reconversion were already there: we had to water them collectively.
“These young people represent a certain population, rather childless, who found themselves either teleworking or partially unemployed, and who take advantage of this moment to advance in their questions, analyzes the sociologist of work Ludivine Le Gros, attached to the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. These evoke an enchanted parenthesis. “
A “useful job”
Since its launch in June 2020 by the social projects incubator Makesense, La Brèche has nearly 1,500 participants and more than a hundred volunteers. “Mobilizers”. A predominantly female audience, aged 25 to 35. With one email per day and regular Zoom meetings, each gives itself two weeks of reflection to ” take action “. Choose from among the different themes: “Doing a job with the next world”, “leaving the city”, “deconstructing to build better”.
Longer hours, permanent stress, loss of meaning… Many graduates, in particular from major business schools, already testified, before the crisis, of a form of unease, or even unease, at work. “There was a breeding ground, and the group effect acts here as a reassurance, underlines Ludivine Le Gros, whose thesis concerns the reconversions of “managerial elites”. With this type of program, they share common aspirations and say to themselves: I am not alone and I am not crazy. “
“For me, it was latent”, confirms Elise Cappon, 31 years old. Graduated from a master’s degree in translation at the University of Toulouse-II, the young woman experienced a burnout just before the onset of the health crisis. For the past three years, she has been dealing with IT support for English and Spanish speaking clients. “I had a huge amount of work, she says. My work stoppage began on the day of the first confinement. Finding myself at home allowed me to think about what I aspired to. “
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