Solidarity at work

Kindness and firmness; open-mindedness and obedience to rules; well-being at work and effort... are often associated with education and business. These words are used on a daily basis to set out the rules of good conduct within a team, but they can become contradictory injunctions if the task at hand remains unclear.

Barbier (2011) refers to the recognition transaction as activities through which values are shared in order to carry out an activity. In the case of manipulation, these values become tools of domination because they are effectively shared but to achieve different objectives.

Solidarity is thus invoked to promote team spirit: rules and orders must not be questioned, let alone discussed, because there is an implied agreement in principle, which implies a relationship of subordination to an authority figure that is inferiority and unconditional submission. Clot (2010) cites teachers as an example, describing them now as ‘the employees whose health is most affected’ and pointing to the increasingly burdensome role of hierarchies, which are transforming workplaces ‘into veritable management centres with extensive powers’.

According to Mazen (2023), a psychological and ethical approach can protect individuals from the ‘risk of excessive protocolisation of professional life’, which encourages cliquey behaviour. This cliquey behaviour, or tension in an overly strict environment, is a regression that hinders personal fulfilment and creativity. Ultimately, the structure itself is weakened: work loses its sense as workers are stripped of the benefit of their differences and encouraged to engage in what Clot defines as ‘prevented quality’.

Difference intrigues, worries, disturbs, even threatens. Groupthink is often interpreted as synonymous with solidarity, erasing differences, tastes and desires in a spirit of domination that does not speak its name. Yet creativity stems from the originality that makes each person unique. Can we ask someone to leave their personality at the door when they go to work, only to pick it up again after work? Those who try to do so pay a high price for such self-effacement, which is a form of self-disrespect.

‘Come as you are’ is a slogan that, when properly understood, gives everyone their space. Rediscovering the pleasure of doing quality work towards a common goal and striving for self-fulfilment: two winning and compatible combinations. I remember a senior engineer who spoke emotionally about how, in the past, despite the dirty workshops and the hard work, the female workers in his factory used to sing all day long.