The ‘control-freak’ disease and its remedy

Excel spreadsheets, statistics, probabilities, checkboxes: an arsenal of tools to monitor work and predict trends is invading the workplace and adding to the tasks of the job. Teachers and trainers are no exception. Assessing their pupils is now only part of the job: the method used, the time spent explaining a concept according to the pupils' difficulties, the books used and photocopied... these are all time-consuming activities that sometimes take the place of interaction with others.

We must be certain and reduce uncertainty to zero. We must place everyone in a box: acceptable, unacceptable; compliant, non-compliant. The sense of belonging is threatened by results that constitute the ultimate proof of merit or demerit. Everyone becomes disposable and replaceable depending on the achievements. Communication is reduced to a final interview. There is no need to meet with the other person to hear what they might have to share: it is enough to interpret the results or algorithms to inform them of a decision. Everything is done to ensure that we never encounter others, but only those who are similar to us, whom we erroneously believe to be identical.

There has been a shift in how others are viewed: they used to think of themselves as actors, but they were also subjects; now they are objectified, a cross in a box, a dot on a trend curve. They become replaceable according to criteria that sometimes escape them or that they are unaware of. Part of their work becomes invisible to them and the quality of their work inevitably suffers as a result. They thus become an adjustment variable in an opaque system. Precariousness is skyrocketing, motivation is waning, and standardisation reigns supreme, even in human sciences.

Occupational psychologist Jacques Leplat described the three stages of activity: orientation, execution and control. Control involves verifying the action performed in order to make adjustments if necessary. These adjustments are made by the person performing the action and can be explained. This opens up a space for communication and sharing. Jacques Leplat promoted ‘the adaptation of work to people’. For him, reality always exceeds the model.

The ‘control freak’ disease is based on the fear of what appears to be failure, but above all, on the fear of others. It presents a dystopian, reductionist and caricatural world.

Adapting work to others restores exchange and sharing within a society that today has a vital need for it. What are we leaving to these children, to these young people, if communication and exchange are lacking in the lives of the adults they look up to as role models?