TY - BOOK AU - Bourion,Christian AU - Bournois,Frank TI - Summary PY - 2010///. N1 - 60 N2 - Image is everything. However, even a unanimously shared belief is not necessarily the truth, just as a unanimously refuted belief is not necessarily fiction. But in a democratic state governed by the rule of law, it is shared representations that form opinion, laws, and norms. In order to capture these images that intersect in the intersubjective views on work and managers, and to decide whether they are true or false, our researchers collected several thousand pieces of data (articles, interviews, surveys, published documents, and feedback). They then divided these into three groups: negative, rational, and positive. Finally, they measured the relevance of the two extreme views by comparing them with annual surveys of several thousand employees describing the realities of their work. Unfortunately, images of suffering at work account for 77% of the reports filed but describe a reality that relates on average to only 8% (up to 15% in bad years) of employees (bankruptcies, sell-outs, relocations, public reform, or critical incidents). Representations praising work account for only 8% of the accounts although they describe the reality of 85 to 92% of employees; hence the widespread image of suffering at work is less than factual. The view of work as some sort of pathogenic agent is shared by attorneys, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, educators, sociologists, labor inspectors, occupational physicians, and journalists, and above all by 8 to 15% of actual employees in interviews on work (6,000 employees; Ipsos Accor). In their files, the reader discovers a variety of ways in which a business is implicitly or explicitly compared to a place of torture, violence, harassment, suffering, fanaticism, stress, or simply a barrage of psychosocial risks. Managers are depicted as guardians, seducers, harassers, fanatics, or perverts. The media benevolently relays these publicly owned caricatures. Viewing work as an agent of good health is advocated by coaches, consultants, corporate managers, administrators, professionals, the Church, and above all by 85 to 92% of actual employees in interviews about their jobs (6,000 employees; Ipsos Accor). In their files, the reader discovers random pictures of a business implicitly or explicitly compared to a place of pleasure, joy, and progression, particularly when the work is well done, useful, and recognized. In these accounts, work is seen as a place of well-being and self-realization, where a personality can develop and where people can really thrive under pressure. This creates the desire for one’s children to follow the same career path and enjoy the same exciting life. Managers are presented as guides, mentors, and coaches. They sometimes make mistakes, but they listen, learn, understand, and pass on their knowledge; they devise solutions and act on them. The media hardly ever portrays these true images because they lack the weight of public opinion UR - https://shs.cairn.info/journal-revue-internationale-de-psychosociologie-2010-39-page-5?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080 ER -