The French way of work

Managers must shoulder some of the blame for France’s troubled relationship with work

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"According to a report on national competitiveness by the World Economic Forum, the French rank and file has a much stronger work ethic than American, British or Dutch employees. "

This statement resonates so strongly against my experience that I simply do not believe it.

I went to Paris this year and found the worst/rudest/most apathetic customer service of my life. I had no per-conceived notions of the French attitude to work before arriving, but after this trip i'm never going back to Paris if I can avoid it. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but there were several notable incidents, and overall I found it considerably worse than Eastern Europe - Paris is like that hot girl that knows no matter how she acts people will still want to be with her. Perhaps it's different in other areas of France.

To all the other names

Did you speak French when you were in Paris? Did you try to speak French? In my experience, people in Paris are no more arrogant, rude or difficult than those in other capital cities, providing that you make an effort to speak their language. It's true that people in other countries are perhaps more tolerant of those who are "liguistically challenged".

but did you want a "special service" because it was "YOU"?
Hmm Paris is the most visited city in the world, more than 8O millions tourists pro years, so, if sometimes one employee get annoyed by a peculiar demand, try to understand, he/she has alredy experienced thousands of peculiar demands before you, and he/she might be tired by them, so the best way, is try to smile, and mke humor, then you'll be more heard !

Certainly did not want special service, just didn't want the tour company to overbook my tour to Versailles then not let me on the bus after i'd already paid and several other noteable events.. and with regard to the other comment - I spoke it from a phrase book only.

Yes, I am aware Paris is the most visited city and this was July.

Terrence202 in reply to Vive_chimie

Being an "anglophone" and also having had the privilege of living in France for about 20 years.....I love France and the people.....I always found that if you make the effort to extend yourself linguistically that this helps a great deal. Paris may be an acception and I agree if you really want to know France, visit the countryside.

thore in reply to Marie_Claude

Marie_Claude, please take no offense, but the 80 million tourists go there because the city is beautiful and has a lot on offer. With all due respect, they don't go there for the Parisians. As much as people living in Paris are part of the picture, and make the place so vibrant (and the 80 million tourists help, too), they are rude, disrespectful and arrogant. I live there myself and I'm particularly rude to, disrespectful of and arrogant towards tourists. Smile


It is instructive that there is no word in French for the English term 'teamwork' in a business setting. 'Travail en équipe' is the literal translation, but how often is the expression heard in organisations or teaching?


If it's true that French workers are less favourably inclined towards their company than those in other countries, it's perhaps surprising that the productivity of French workers is so high; output per hour worked is, I believe, higher than in Germany, Britain, the USA, in fact than just about anywhere, with the possible exception of Luxembourg.

see /
for example

However, statistics can be presented in various ways. The total output per year of an average French worker is less than that of his American counterpart, because the latter works quite a few more hours per year than the former. Perhaps because the American worker loves his job and working enviroment so much - or perhaps for other reasons.


Access to the grand ecoles is far from meritocratic because rich families can pay for 1 or more years of 'prepas', studies to enable students to pass the entrance exams to join the elites.

Access to employment is plagued by a system called 'pistoner' where you have to know someone to get a job. Lack of access to employment is why there is now 400,000 French currently living in the UK, mostly complaining about our food.

guest-iwonise in reply to LjxzWL5rzk

The two years of 'prepas' studies are free of charges since they mainly take place in public high schools. The best of them are located in parisian elite high schools (Louis-le-Grand, Henri IV, Ste-Genevieve...). Access to the top grandes ecoles (Ecole normale superieure, Polytechnique, Mines...) is based on cultural background rather than money. Nearly 50% of the Polytechnique students have at least one of their parents working as an high-school teacher (

Sredni Vashtar

Incidentally, I have had the misfortune of being taught by Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts. He is the perfect example of a pedigreed guy who finds great satisfaction in his work without being of any use whatsoever. In an otherwise fantastic institution such as HEC, he really stands out.

Mildred Pierce in reply to Sredni Vashtar

Thank you so much for saying this. When I read that quote, your comment is EXACTLY what I thought, as someone who was also "taught" by Besseyre des Horts. I always remember him spending half of one class gassing on and on about his aristocratic origins in excruciating and irrelevant detail. The irony of him commenting on this issue is incredibly rich.

Sredni Vashtar

That the French "find great satisfaction in their work, but ... actively dislike their firm’s top managers" does NOT, contrary to what Schumpeter seems to affirm, "suggest that the problem with French employees is less that they are work-shy, than that they are poorly managed." One can be perfectly satified with not doing much is that is what one likes. And is that is the case, then people trying to make one do more (i.e., top managers) are bound to be disliked. So where does the conclusion come from?

The reality is that French do indeed work less. Look at the statistics, for Marianne's sake. The average French employee spends 20% less time at work than the average Japanese or American.

Bob Kenyon in reply to Sredni Vashtar

Well and the German work 20% less than the French... I have worked a lot with Japanese and Korean companies, so many hours but in the end the result was not better than what I achieved with German in half th time I spent with Japanese or Korean.

irishprof in reply to Bob Kenyon

Don't know about the Japanese and Koreans, but would agree with the above, the Germans make a plan and get on with it while most other nationalities prefer to make a plan, change it a hundred times with features no-one will want or use, and then hold countless meetings as to why the project is behind schedule. Meanwhile the Germans are busy rigourosly testing their new product that does exactly what it was designed to do, no more, no less.


I have dounts when an article makes generalizations about a country or a nation. This one is no exception. I have consulted in management for 35 years around the world, including France, the US, Africa and even Asia. My appreciation is the same wherever we go and it leads to a similar conclusion : poor management is endemic, even amongst the largest international corporations, organizations and local governments.
I agree that "nepotism" and "old boys networks" are the prevailing mode of renewal of management teams from the top, but worst, nobody will question the quality of their management education, their competencies at managing organizations and even their understanding of the business BEFORE they are allowed to be appointed. It may be worst in some regions than others but the bottom line is the same : leaders of large organisations will have a tendency to hire people who are willing to "think the right way" before looking for agents of change.
The concept has spread to political leaders who like to pose as "responsible accountants" and will endeavour to renew the party with people of little management experience and dublies track records as leaders or anything.
One hypthesis that needs to be pursued is that greed has become so prevailing that we are now replicating the concept of wealth buiding through inbreeding amongst the wealthy. I would not be syrprised if it stood the test of validation.

Alain J. Godbout
retired from
Université du Québec


I'm an Engineer from Montreal that spent 6 years in the south of France. 1.- Is the turnover rate higher that elsewhere from that unsatisfactory ? Don't think so - very often french workers will complain a lot on their management but won't quit to try to find a better managed place or engage to make it a better place. Employment security is so good it doesn't worth the risk to try another firm. 2.- Is this possible that the mandatory military service up to Y2K left some very hierarchic managing traditions leading to confrontations and misunderstandings, at least with younger generations ?


Yes, and this culture of "old boys network" at the top and lack of empowerment below, is now emposed on the whole of Europe through the culture of the institutions of the European Union which are in essence French-inspired. Time for the non-latin people of the North to put up some resistent. Let's start with passive resisitance: we stop paying their debts.


It is interesting that such a feudal attitude prevails in the country that has been the fountain of concepts of liberty and personal freedom.

Kavinsky in reply to yBhJMLgQ9X

True! This is called French paradoxe. French people made revolution in 1789, decapitated their king Louis XIV and abolished privileges, but they do keep acting like a monarchy when it comes to climb up the social ladder.

Mad Hatter in reply to Kavinsky

@yBhJMLgQ9X and Kavinsky

France never had its Magna Carta (nobody is above the law, not even the King!) so is still socially a feudal country, where the nobility has privileges the peasants don’t, and peasants do what their Nobles tell them to do.

Resistance takes place in large groups - , where the peasants take to the streets and throw rocks, or as described in the article – post it notes on windows.

The Aristocracy – Enarques etc. protects its own, and is far removed from what takes place on the street and in the lower echelons of the back office.

This is a mainland European attitude – epitomizes by entrenched clowns like Sepp Blatter – “who are you to criticize me?”

Which is really too bad, because the French are better workers than those on this side of the channel, especially when it come to both productivity and pride in their work.

If only they allowed better managers from the ranks of the hoi-polloi to rise into positions of authority.

Time for a real revolution?


And still France have higher GNP per head than UK, and only slightly less then Germany.

kingtran in reply to semicontinuous

But does it? This is a serious question.

In the UK health care is not paid for, so I suspect will not show up in GNP figures.

In France, health care is paid for and then re-imbursed by the government. This would I presume show up in the GNP figures.

Or have I misunderstood something?

Wyz777 in reply to kingtran

Of course state expenditures such as health care show up in the GNP figures. As they have no market price, they are usually registered "at cost".
For more information on this topic see Tyler Cowen's latest book: "The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better". A hell of a title for a quite interesting and easy-to-read book.


An organizational psychologist who worked for several French firms and also for International ones, concludes from his experiences in management of their human relations departements that difficulties in R.H. within French companies come from 4 causes, the last 2 ones being the most insidious and most frequent:
1) the tribal attitudes which favor hiring, cooperating and promoting people from same schools and universities; the notion of helping personal growth is unknown, except if following formal rules of the clan;
2) a veiled hostility to people with different political adhesion; 70% of ENA students come from Socialist or Dirigist families;
3) a lack of recognition of brutal personalities disorders (15 t0 35% in any population) and the technical ways to cope with them, i.e. in an open, comprehensive, non adversarial manner and with the support of specialists; coward managers use crooks and authoritarian people to discharge their responsabilities.
4) the absence of training of workers and managers from early to end of schooling, in cooperation, in democratic leadership and runnng of assemblies and conversation.
He said he would be surprised if, in a poll asking how many bosses a worker has met that he respected or admired, the rate is over 1%.

T.B. - The Economist in reply to rivenx

Hi - this is from the author of the piece - I find these four points fascinating. Do you think that these are completely specific to French firms? Just the big ones - are things better in smaller companies? I would really like to make contact - are you based in Paris? Best regards, TB


re: the Grandes Ecoles being "superbly meritocratic": While I agree that they are on paper, the reality is that a majority of the students found therein come from the upper-middle to upper strata. Some say this has to do with how much more access to extracurricular culture (which, coupled with a strong work ethic, is a huge leg-up when preparing for the exams to get into these schools) these kids get growing up. Others say high-schoolers with a lower-income background lack the role-models and encouragement from teachers/parents to believe they can do well in such schools, as opposed to going to university. This is especially true in business schools, for which fees can be sky-high as well, but less so for engineering schools.

Pandipeddhi in reply to overmatt

his view is also correct. So the workman hates the boss. Role models are every where in every environment. What is more conducive that matters.
What is conducive for boss may not always be conducive to workman. Workman does not believe in pleasing somebody like an entrepreneur.He believes in effectiveness of a job. He goes all the way to do the job better than yesterday. He does not like some body breathing over him. He likes proprietors more than managers. Worker think managers rob his due wages, by superficial supervision. so the worker and manager conflicts came to the fore that led to communist philosophy. Workers hate the very words of business schools. That is the problem just because he thinks business schools create class system. Worst of all when disparity of wages came into being between worker and managers to CEO, all the more hate tidings. unfortunately managers did not take this into account and the hatred has increased from workers side. Worker idles his time if he sees the manager and if he instructs he does only that uch of instruction, may lead to bad workmanship and worker knows what is good workmanship and he also knows managers or engineers are in no way as skillful as he is! so the problems are galore.

Wyz777 in reply to overmatt

Waow, this topic is kind of popular ! Is really France so elistist ? I'm a Frenchman, my grandfather was a coalminer, my father a civil servant (lower ranks), I was lucky enough to have parents and teachers who taught me the importance of learning, I graduated HEC, this business school with "sky-high fees" (actually one half of the cost in the US) after two attempts (by the way, preparation was free of charge). My best friends at HEC were the son of an Italian-born bricklayer and the son of a Spain-born steel-worker. When my father died I was granted a scholarship from the school in order to finish my studies. Of course it was 25 years ago. Has France changed that much ? Or is it the world we live in that turned so tough and egotist as a whole ?

Anjin-San in reply to Wyz777

"Of course it was 25 years ago. Has France changed that much ? "

Judging from how the situation around tuition fees and student grants deteriorated in the UK over the past 20 years, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the same degree of deterioration occurred at French universities over the past 25 years...



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