Critical deconstruction of work dissatisfaction
This tool can be used in the contracting phase with clients who experience dissatisfaction in their current work to help them critically reflect on their representation of work and relate it to environmental sustainability. It is an illustration, that starting with environmental issues is not always the most effective entry point for introducing sustainability into conversations. In many cases, clients are more immediately concerned with experiences of meaninglessness, exhaustion, overperformance, relentless pressure to do more, “bullshit jobs,” inequality, health problems, or exploitation at work. These concerns can help open critical discussion about the representations of work and serve as gateways to conversations about sustainability.
Inspiration for the tool
Marie Anne Dujarier – French sociologist of work, who deconstructs the social construct of work into 3 categories of social representations:
- Activity: The effortful actions undertaken by individuals.
- Production: The tangible or intangible outcomes resulting from these activities.
- Employment: The institutional framework that provides remuneration and social status.
Dujarier argues that, historically, these dimensions were aligned, providing individuals with a coherent understanding of their work. However, in modern neoliberal societies, these links have become increasingly fragmented. For instance, individuals may engage in unpaid internships (activity without remuneration), or participate in gig economy roles that lack traditional employment benefits (production without stable employment). Many employees feel the lack of meaning which can have negative impact on their health. Also, the environmental crisis contributes to the misalignment between people’s aspirations and the realities of their day-to-day experiences of activity, destructive and wasteful production, objectifying employment relations, contributing to feelings of dissatisfaction and alienation among workers .
Le grand manuel de la transition – Collectif FORTES : This french group of actors propose that the relational quality of work can be the lever for the transformation of work necessary for the ecological transition. The idea is to restore meaning to collective action in the face of the erosion of connection due to neoliberalism, where work maximizes individual interest and profit, neglecting the dimension of “working together to build the community.” The manual distinguishes three qualities of work in its current conception:
- Subjective – increasing one’s skills, creativity, positive perception of usefulness – this has been widely emphasized in neoliberalism
- Objective – quality of the product or service, regardless of the effects on people or the environment. According to the authors, “it must be subordinated to the increase in the quality of life it promotes, also for those far away in space and time.”
- Collective – quality of relationships between workers, with human and natural environments.
The subjective dimension was largely subordinated to objective quality. For solidarity and sustainable work, the objective dimension must be linked to subjective and collective quality—with respect to ecosystems, oneself, and others.
The framework that combines the two approaches could look like this and can serve as a helpful guideline for career professionals and clients to reflect on their current situation:
| Dimension | Subjective quality (personal experience, development) | Objective quality (results, compliance, efficiency) | Collective quality (relationships, cooperation, social and ecological ethics) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Development, creativity, pride in one’s skills, motivation, pleasure, creativity, sense of achievement, self-expression, appreciation of craftsmanship, ability to take ownership of one’s work | Efficiency, clarity of objectives, clarity of instructions, goal achievement, adherence to procedures, sustainable pace, “good work” according to management | Cooperation, mutual support among colleagues, knowledge sharing, sense of solidarity or isolation, relationships with management |
| Production | Personal meaning, pride in the result, coherence with one’s values, perceived quality, beauty or ugliness of the product/service | Usefulness to others (clients/users), compliance, measurable quality, recognized originality | Social or ecological contribution, impact, long-term usefulness, alignment with social or environmental needs |
| Employment | Security, recognition, trust, perceived stability, sense of dignity, ability to envision a future | Clarity of role, status, remuneration, official recognition, evaluation objectives, alignment between position and actual tasks | Human relations, participation in decision-making, shared governance, social climate, equal treatment, sense of belonging |
Rationale: Why is this needed?
This tool can guide individuals experiencing work dissatisfaction in exploring the misalignments in their work experience (activity, production, employment) while reconnecting to larger ecological, social, and existential dimensions of work. It contributes to the critical reflection on the alienation, employment relations and production/consumption in the capitalist society.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, clients will:
- have a deeper understanding of their current professional role
- reflect on the relational quality of work and the objective of work beyond profit alone by integrating durability, the beauty of the products, the adequacy between the needs and expectations of workers and users…
- envision a more satisfactory and sustainable possibilities.
Resources needed
Sheet of paper with 3 a Venn diagram with 3 circles (as represented in the table below).
Activities
1. Initial analysis
Discuss with the client the three areas that are connected to the word of “work”. Guide the client through the activity and invite the client to write down the key words in the three areas:
| Area of the Venn diagramme | Possible questions |
| Activity (meaning, health, decency) | What tasks do you perform daily? What do you feel while doing these tasks? Do these activities feel meaningful, connected, or fragmented? How do these tasks utilize your skills and interests? How are these activities meaningful for you (or not)? How are these activities engaging / monotonous? What about your current situation makes you feel capable, creative, or fulfilled? What has this job allowed you to develop or learn? Do you feel useful and competent? On the scale of 1-10, how would you evaluate your satisfaction with your daily activities? |
| Production (utility) | What are the results of your work? What is their value or meaning to you, to others, to the community, to the world? Are you proud of these results? What is the connection between your activities and the final products or services? What impact do you think your work has on others, on society, on the environment? In the long run, what does your work leave behind? How do you feel when you look at what you produce or create? What is the concrete purpose of what you produce? What real needs does your work help to meet? Who benefits from it? Is it useful to someone, to something? If you could change what you produce, in what direction would you like it to evolve? On the scale of 1-10, how would you evaluate (subjectively) the usefulness of the outcomes of your work for the world? |
| Employment (status, relations, security) | Describe the nature of the employment relationship, including contract type, remuneration, and benefits. How does your organization recognize and reward your contributions? How much say have the employees in the decision-making?… How do relationships work in your team? Do you feel supported? How are your relationships with your colleagues and your superiors? What is the level of cooperation, human connection, and collective project in your work? Does this position give you the feeling of being part of a collective, of a shared project? On the scale of 1-10, how would you evaluate your satisfaction with your employment context? |
2. Identifying misalignments
Discuss with the client any discrepancies between the activities they perform and the outputs produced, how does their employment status reflect the value of your work, whether they feel that your role allows for a meaningful contribution… Consider personal values related to work, such as purpose, recognition, and stability…
You can use markers of different colours to circle items that contribute to the satisfaction and those that contribute to the misalignment.
3. Reflective discussion
Depending on the experiences of the client, you can discuss how societal changes, such as the rise of the gig economy, digitalization, climate change and ecological crisis impact personal work experiences. You can also discuss the following questions to go deeper:
Connection to self, others, and the world
- In what moments do you feel “alive” in what you do — connected to yourself, to others, to nature?
- Are there moments when, on the contrary, you feel cut off, isolated, or useless?
Role in society / the world
- What role would you like to play through your work — in your family, your community, or for the environment?
- What would you like to bring to others through your work?
- If you asked yourself “What do I want to contribute to?” instead of “What job should I do?”, what would that change for you?
Dissatisfaction as a signal
- What does your dissatisfaction say about what you’re missing or what you truly care about?
- What values or needs are not being respected in your current job?
Imagining a sustainable and meaningful job
- What do you think work should be for?
- What purposes matter most to you? (e.g. helping others, creating connection, preserving nature, transmitting knowledge, repairing, inventing…)
- If you could invent a job that makes sense to you, what would it look like?
- In what kind of world would you like to live and work? Are your current choices bringing you closer to that world?
- And if you could make choices without guilt or outside pressure — what would you truly choose?
4. Action planning
You can discuss with the client (depending on their sensibility to the question of sustainability):
- What are the potential areas for change or development in your current role for better alignment?
- What are alternative career paths that might offer better alignment among activity, production, and employment?
- In what small or larger ways can you engage with the world (through my work or beyond) to support change you care about?
- What alignments and solidarities matter to you — with other people, future generations, or ecosystems?
- What spaces exist for shared action, cooperation, or collective projects in my professional life?
Extension activities
For clients seeking to contribute to a social transformation, you can propose the following questions, based on Dujarier’s framework to explore the different layers of the social transformation of work.
- Individual level
- Social level – interpersonal relationships and organizations
- Societal level – institutions
This is interesting namely for people who feel too much individual pressure or culpability – it can help them realize different frictions and imbrications on other levels and leave the limited individualist / psychologising perspective.
- What kind of change would you like to see — and feel capable of initiating — at your level?
- Where do you already have influence, even if small? What resources, skills, experiences you have could be useful?
- What resistance or friction do I feel when I think about contributing to change? Where does it come from? What are the obstacles, imbrications and tensions that prevent this change on a social level, or institutional level?
- How could your individual or collective action contribute to a wider change?
- Who could you connect with to act collectively?
Also, there are several other possible uses of this framework during the first interview with the client, for example using a blank sheet of paper to describe the the current situation on the left and the desired desired situation related to future career direction on the right and then connect the two with an arrow/a ladder and discuss concrete steps that can lead from the current situation to the future desired state.