The workplace, that last bastion of civility

Dear reader,

An 1980s advertising slogan has become a common expression in French: “A touch of softness in a world of brutes.” It started with Lindt’s description of its chocolate bars as “a few grams of finesse in a world of brutes.” What were they trying to tell us? Don’t expect comfort in the world as it is, only comforting pleasures through consumption.

Forty years later, this “world of brutes” speaks to us more than ever. The word “decivilization” used by the French President was an implicit response to a recent series of violent acts against an elected official, police officers, children, and even a member of his wife’s own family... The left was outraged by his choice of words, with some claiming he was quoting from Renaud Camus, a prominent “great replacement” theorist; to which Macron’s defenders retorted that no, this was a reference to Norbert Elias, the great German sociologist and author of The Civilizing Process.

Experts may explain that violence is lower than in the past and much less accepted, but the news is such that everyone ends up believing that we’re seeing a “rise in violence” that spares neither ordinary citizens, nor the authorities, nor any sacred place. So, is open and uninhibited violence everywhere? Not quite: if there’s a place that remains relatively sheltered from the phenomenon, it is that of the company. Let’s try to show how and why.

‘If the sword no longer plays so great a role as the means of decision, it is replaced by intrigue’

—Norbert Elias

As described by Norbert Elias, the civilising of human customs is a long process of repression of impulses which first took place in the royal or aristocratic courts. Physical violence was gradually prohibited, but “if the sword no longer plays so great a role as the means of decision, it is replaced by intrigue, conflicts in which careers and social success are contested with words,” he explains in The Civilizing Process (1939). “They demand and produce other qualities than did the armed struggles that had to be fought out with weapons in one’s hand. Continuous reflection, foresight, and calculation, self-control, precise and articulate regulation of one’s own effects, knowledge of the whole terrain, human and nonhuman, in which one acts, become more and more indispensable preconditions of social success.” He further quotes from Jean La Bruyère’s Characters (1688): “The court is like an edifice of marble; I mean it is composed of men who are very hard, but very polished.”

We can see these new “civilised” human relations not only in today’s political world (at least when it’s well behaved), but also in that of the company and other workplaces. Passions are concealed there, speech controlled, conflicts ritualised. Immediate reactions are repressed in favour of an analysis of our motivations and interdependencies. To put it simply, before fighting, we think about causes and consequences. Elias himself compared court mores to those of big businesses. In both cases, “self-monitoring and meticulous observation of others are among the basic conditions for maintaining social position.” Today’s recruiters who insist on etiquette only underline this necessity.

There are other factors that might help explain why the company is perhaps the ultimate refuge of civility. The first is that you enter it of your own free will, by signing a contract. Both parties find it in their interest, even if the employee, who is forced to earn a living, is often – but not always – in the weakest position. Another characteristic is that labour relations are particularly codified. Apart from the army, there are few environments as hierarchical and standardised as the company. The Labour Code coupled with internal regulations form a robust straitjacket for managers and employees alike. Whether someone insults a colleague, gets drunk in the workplace, makes fun of the boss on social media, gropes an intern, or humiliates an employee – for their appearance, accent, skin colour, or sexual orientation (as well as twenty other criteria of discrimination) – they will invariably get punishment.

We could give many more examples. These sanctions aren’t just symbolic: they can take the form of real money – the lifeforce of the company – or of a dismissal. With such safeguards, it should come as no surprise that at work, even the worst hoodlum or rudest character tends to refrain. Of course, work also comes with its grudges, low blows, and injustices; but this violence, by being deflected, is often defused; and when it does break out, it’s often expressed with a degree of politeness. This is why, if such a thing as “decivilisation” is indeed underway, the business world isn’t the first concerned!

Sophie Gherardi

Picture © Mo / Unsplash