Are you going to work "at the office"?

Last spring, with the confinement, many French people discovered teleworking.

However, it is not only a question of moving from an open space to a makeshift office installed in his living room, it is also a revolution for our civilization.

Because this question of where you work, where you meet your colleagues, where you are also under the supervision of your boss, is central.

It is the basis of the organization of our entire society and it is an issue of power.

Since when do we go "to the office"?

What questions pose the end of the possible "control" of our time in front of our computer?

Where does the fear that you won't work when you're not at the office come from?

In the twelfth episode of the "Les Éclaireurs" podcast, Matthieu Belliard once again takes the time to listen to the world change.

With his guest, the ethnologist Pascal Dibie, author of Ethnology of the office, brief history of a seated humanity (Métailié editions), the presenter of the morning of Europe 1 questions our life at work today and our office tomorrow. 

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Three ideas to remember to take the time to listen to the world change

The

(from 13'07) "In the 1930s the tertiary sector began to take on a real importance in society and people thought that unlike the factory, an office was a clean place, and therefore that eventually, we were going to be able to entrust our daughter to Mr. Dupont, who was in charge of Machin's office. She would spend a few years there, the time to meet a husband ... At the time, they were paid infinitely less than men. . But femininity was considered. The office was an interval in life, while waiting to become a married woman ", recalls the ethnologist who specifies that it is at this time that for the first time women became secretaries .

But the office is also a place of sexism, he points out.

Because whatever the period, women are confined to certain sectors or certain activities.

The Revolution created the "officials" (from 7'50).

“Before the French Revolution, we could work for the king. He was a natural person. With the French Revolution, we worked for the State, which is not a really defined entity. So we had to convince people to working for the State, ”explains Pascal Dibie.

"To retain the people who will work for the various governments that will succeed one another, we will then imagine the idea of ​​social assistance after retirement. Even today, when we treat someone as a civil servant, what he is basically blamed for being paid even when he is not working ". 

The first office chairs had casters (from 11'10).

"In the 19th century, it was the ball bearings that would radically change the way we sat. In modern buildings in America in the 1930s, armchairs were to be installed on rails with desks lengthwise, from so that the bureaucrat can pick up a form on the left, a book on the right, stamp in front of him, etc. ", specifies the ethnologist.

"Little by little, it will go from this sliding system to an ergonomic chair where you can go up, down, tilt ... So much so that today, when you no longer have this freedom to move, you find yourself rather poorly installed ".

References

"Ethnology of the office, a brief history of a seated humanity (Métailié editions)

HIS Edouard Baer in the Film Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra

SON Elisabeth Teleworking terminal (30/10 Samain) Europe 1

"Les Éclaireurs" is a Europe 1 studio podcast

Presentation: Matthieu Belliard

Line-up: Juliette Bergé

Director: Xavier Jolly

Editorial project manager: Fannie Rascle

Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Karelle Villais

Director of Europe 1 Studio: Olivier Lendresse