how to navigate French work culture

One day I was sitting in a French corporation watching their esteemed CEO record a video. When his staff cameraman accidentally ruined a shot, he shouted it out in front of a room full of employees. She turned red and tried not to cry. He was showing his authority.

Half the world dreams of moving to Paris to enjoy a supposed 35-hour work week (not a reality in the upper parts of the city) and long lunches (often a reality), but what is it really like to work in a French company? I have lived in Paris since 2002 and am fascinated by the differences between its work culture and that of its rival cities in London and New York.

French workplace codes often surprise foreigners. There are striking weaknesses (such as widespread mistrust) and great strengths (quality of work and work-life balance). Progressive changes are also occurring as France goes global. Based on interviews with French and foreign employees, here you will find a guide to navigating the modern French workplace.

How to conquer the boss

The most striking feature of French offices is the all-powerful (and in most sectors, generally male) boss. French job hierarchies tend to be relatively “vertical.” A British woman who worked at a Parisian luxury goods corporation says she observed “a kind of cult of the leader.”

Bosses are usually elite graduates. great schools, and even 60-year-old CEOs might still reference their alma maters (yes, even more so than in the UK). Anders Fogelström, a former Swedish CEO in France, explained to me: “The French boss is expected to know things. He is not supposed to be a coordinator of decentralizing power. The boss must convince, but also seduce”: a matter of personal panache.

Sex and sexism

It should be added that attempts at literal seduction are diminishing, as #MeToo finally takes hold in French workplaces. There have also been several recent rape trials of prominent Frenchmen, not to mention the most high-profile rape trial in French history, that of Gisèle Pelicot’s husband and the dozens of men he invited to rape her, which will conclude before Christmas. Delphine Dhilly, who made the documentary. Sex without consent (“Sex without consent”), she says of everyday sexism in the workplace: “I don’t necessarily see less arrogance on the part of men, but less tolerance on the part of women.”

Tactics and strategies.

Apparently, subordinates still rarely challenge the boss. Pierre Forthomme, an executive coach who works with senior French executives, says managers “would value feedback and teamwork. They don’t want to be alone. But the system puts them in this place of power, so we can criticize the elite for our problems.”

Corporate decisions are rarely made in formal meetings. A French chief could consult only a few trusted lieutenants, behind closed doors. (This is also President Emmanuel Macron’s preferred mode.) An American who works at a Parisian bank adds: “Where it gets fierce is how you become one of those trusted lieutenants.” One strategy is to give your ideas to your boss, let him take the glory, and hope to move up with him. Admittedly, this may seem like universal boss behavior, but it’s probably more pronounced in Paris.

There are few executives initiated into the boss’s thinking. The banker says: “Communication is intentionally unequal. You get inside information based on who you know and how much you trust them.”

Strict hierarchies create distrustful work relationships. The company’s “social and economic committees,” made up of elected employees and union representatives, frequently confront the boss. However, the boss can win the connivance of these interlocutors by offering them discreet benefits, such as the use of a company car, says Fogelström.

How to be indecipherable

The enormous French army looms in every workplace. job code, the labor code. Many employees can list their legal rights as trained attorneys. Those who have achieved the holy grail of obtaining a CDI, a indefinite term contract (“indefinite-duration contract”), the layman’s equivalent of an academic obtaining a permanent position, becomes almost indestructible. This now applies to around 73 percent of all French workers, if you include civil servants, who are also very difficult to fire. That means companies have to find other ways to get rid of unwanted staff. Sometimes they will give the person a reward. Another favorite method is cartelization: the employee is metaphorically put in a closet, a signand they were given useless or no work. It is an exercise in humiliation. The person can sit and read the newspaper for years until they agree to leave.

Golden cages and glass ceilings

The inability to be looted shapes the peculiar flavor of French workplaces. Most CDI employees eventually run out of ambition, because top positions tend to still be reserved for male alumni of universities. great schools. A Franco-Senegalese consultant in Paris also notes: “If you are black or Arab, there is a glass ceiling.” He says he rarely takes a black employee speaking in a meeting completely seriously.

Those excluded could be trapped for decades in jobs they don’t like. However, few dare to change their CDI for the dreaded life of what the French call precarity — precarious work, often temporary or none at all. The American banker claims that many long-term French employees end up “in a golden cage”: “You are well taken care of, you are well fed, but there is little upward mobility. The American mentality of ‘I’m going to work as hard as I can and grow the company’ hardly exists here.”

Many company workers have known each other for decades. But Sociologists consider France to be a country of “little trust.”and that also applies to most French workplaces. Department heads often behave like rivals waging “turf wars,” says the Franco-Senegalese consultant. Again, this happens everywhere, but perhaps more so in France.

The language of lunch

A strong “team mentality” across the company is rare. However, trust can be built between people, usually over lunch, a key place where gossip and other information is exchanged. If a colleague invites you to lunch, always say yes, no matter how busy you are, recommends a French lawyer. You can buy a sandwich at the bakery or, better yet, go to a local restaurant to order a prix fixe menu, which, given the efficiency of Parisian kitchens, means you can be in and out in 45 minutes. Smokers may also hear useful gossip during the cold gathering in front of the building.

To build trust at this time and grasp the underlying currents of the company, speaking French remains essential, although English is currently becoming more widespread in some French companies. Fogelström explains: “No one trusts anyone, and if you are a foreigner, you are by definition naive, since you do not understand the unwritten rules.”

Subsidized champagne and other matters

Aside from lunch, French workers spend relatively little social time together. After-work drinks or Christmas parties are rare, although there will be toasts to people approaching the French retirement of 25 years. Employees are not expected to work hard or post pictures of their children. It is acceptable to take your child to the doctor, but be discreet: your colleagues do not need to know your family details. French workers are allowed to keep their personal lives separate and prioritize them. French full-time workers spend an average of 16.2 hours a day “to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure”, the second highest among 41 developed countries after Italy, reports the OECD. People in the middle ranks of Parisian offices might stick to the official 35-hour week or take extra vacation if they work late, although some people at the top routinely put in much longer days. Most offices practically close in August, allowing employees to disappear without missing anything.

The American banker highlights the advantages of French workplaces: “It is easy to achieve a work-life balance and have children. “Our union gives us subsidized vacations and subsidized champagne.” She believes she lives better than her peers in the United States, who earn four times as much and fear being laid off when there is a recession.

vocation vocation vocation

The Brit who worked in French luxury points out another strength of French workplaces: “The teams I worked with had incredible attention to detail and took great pride in doing exceptional work.” Some employees have specialized in their field since their student years, since careers here tend to be vocational training.

Anna Sophia Beetschen, a Swiss doctor working in a Parisian hospital, saw her colleagues’ pride in being members of the medical guild. That’s why they almost always wore hospital gowns, even when there was no hygienic advantage. They found status in their educational CV and employment status rather than in their salary.

That pride extends across the French spectrum. Here, “baguette maker and ski instructor are vocations, not for dilettantes,” writes Kevin Bryan, an economist at the University of Toronto, in job”. This may help explain why French hourly productivity is approximately 17 percent more than in the UK.

The coworkings

For a glimpse into the future of Parisian work culture, watch the coworkingsthat have sprung up all over the city and attract younger digital nomads. Julien Karyo, a French technology entrepreneur who has spent years in coworkingsSee how the welcome appetizers have changed. English has become more common, and wine and flirting less so. These changes may later affect the older business sector. In the end everything is globalized, even French work culture.

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