The French way of work: Economist Article 11.19

My father forwarded me an interesting article in the economist recently about "The French Way of Work" (or lack thereof). Basically, the French are stereotyped as being lazy workers, but the article says they are actually poorly managed. Apparently, the French are very content with their work, but rather discontent with how things are run.

Why is this? Well, let's refer back to my inter-cultural training, shall we? (as my mom says "Danone sure got their money's worth sending you to that class") We spent nearly an hour talking about the French education system (BORING!), but the main takeaway is super important and super infuriating. The French education system starting about when kids are 12 is SUPER serious and competitive. I knew this (the bac test, etc), but what I didn't know was how it affects business. Basically, the 'grande ecoles' are the handful of super elite schools where every, single (no joke) CEO of a major french company has been educated. And basically, getting into these schools pre-determines the rest of your life. Thus, if you went to a good school, you will succeed in business, even if you arent' that affective in life. Sure, we have 'super elite' schools in the US, but seeing as we're a task oriented society, it doesn't matter where you went to school as long as you do well. (yes, yes, you have a leg up in theory if you went to an 'ivy' school. But frankly, you are probably better off dropping out ...helloooo bill gates, mark zuckerberg, and steve jobs)

So basically, France is NOT a meritocracy (even though thier school system is). The management at these top firms are being appointed for the wrong reasons. And then they get to the top and are ineffective, then people are pissed about it, find it poorly managed, and are demotivated. I can totally relate to this.

But the main reason my dad sent me the article was because my company is cited as a major exception as they promote generally from within and for merit. YAY! I won't write the name here (not like it's a secret, but whatever, don't want people googling and finding this post). But it's true, in my company we have what is a called a CODE, which is mainly corporate gibberish, but the E stands for Empowerment. In the US, this seemed like common sense to me. But here it is a major breakthrough. At this point 3 months in, I definitely can see some work culture differences, but I would definitely NOT say anyone's lazy. More analytical, slower to react, infuriating at times MAYBE, but certainly not lazy.