OPINION. Do managers have the blues? Do they sometimes feel that they have a “bullshit job”? These questions, which have been going around the world of work and, by extension the whole of French society, for some years now, probably deserve to be clarified…

By Anne Cudkowicz and Gwënola Dubois-Dorkel, both general managers at Arthur Hunt Transition.

his is precisely what the latest survey carried out by the IFOP on behalf of Arthur Hunt, in partnership with the Bona Fidé agency, invites us to do. Something about the climate surrounding the issue of work has changed, and managers and executives are not immune to the rule.

“I’m doing well, but I’m leaving”…

The survey of 500 senior executives and supervisors revealed a number of surprising results.
This one for a start: 84% believe that the transformation of a company is essential to adapt it to a changing economic, competitive and technological environment. 76% feel that transformation has been conducted well in their company in recent years. A way of defying the conventional wisdom that middle management is a force of resistance to change…
Another telling figure: 84% say they have a good image of the management of their company, and 87% are satisfied with their relationship with their direct superior.
In short, the portrait that the study paints is that of managers who are committed, fulfilled, well integrated into their company and in agreement with the way the company is going. Everything seems to be going well. And yet… 58% confess that they have been tempted to resign! Something’s wrong, but what?

When young graduates lead the way

Managers don’t feel ill at ease in themselves or in their work, yet they want to be somewhere else. It’s not that they don’t like their daily work experience, but rather that they aspire to something else. But what? Regardless of their age and regardless of their level of responsibility, managers and executives are obviously not immune to the debates and cultural changes that are shaking up society.
Thus – and this is another surprising lesson learnt from the survey – the qualities valued in a company executive are now more ethical than technical. Respect for employees (69%) and ethics and honesty (68%) top the list of qualities considered “very important”, well ahead of leadership, strategic vision, skills and capacity for innovation. We certainly would not have had the same answers twenty years ago. Today, there is a genuine moral requirement for companies, not only from consumers, but also from employees called upon to exercise leading responsibilities.

This is because the “big quit” is probably above all a symptom of a new vision of the world of work. The 58% of executives who are thinking of going elsewhere will certainly not jump in feet first.
But they are clearly seized by doubt. The proof? 77% say they understand the graduates of the grandes écoles – Polytechnique, HEC, Sciences Po, etc. – who have expressed loud and clear their refusal to take up a career in companies considered responsible for the current climate crisis. This figure is not insignificant: in normal times, it’s easier to imagine young people who are committed, sometimes even radical, who get back into line as they get older, and are judged as such by their elders. None of this here: it’s young people who redefine work-related representations, and the most experienced who follow… A sign of the times, no doubt.

Yes, but what for?

While the reasons for managers and executives to change course are more or less clear, their destination is less clear. They are unlikely to dream of moving to a medium-sized town to retrain in handicrafts like the first of the disaffected class described by journalist Jean-Laurent Cassely.

They are more astute; they either plan to start a business (40%) or continue working as freelancers (39%). And because the prospect of going it alone when you’ve spent all your career in a large group can be daunting, becoming a transition manager can then become an attractive option. Hence the transformations underway in the transition manager line of business. In the past, transition managers tended to be experienced managers, at the end of their career, who provided their extensive experience to a struggling company.

Today, the job has been modernised, and is no longer seen as an activity linked solely to crisis situations (40% believe that they are “as useful for a company in a time of growth as in a crisis”, compared to 18% who believe that “they are first and foremost useful for a company in a time of crisis”) but as a real lever for development. In a context where the relationship with work is changing, where careers are no longer linear, where ethics matter, transition management is a solution for the future, both for managers and their individual aspirations for a “multi-faceted” professional life and for companies, by overcoming their recruitment difficulties.

(*) Biographies :

Anne Cudkowicz – Anne began her professional career with a headhunting firm specialising in the recruitment of senior executives, then for seven years she set up, developed and managed the Marketing & Commercial division at Expectra (Randstad Group).

Gwenola Dubois-Dorkel – After 10 years as a consultant and then manager at Expectra (Ranstand Group), she became a Partner in 2017 and took over as General Manager of the business in 2019.