2024-10-17 15:31:00
While the executive job market remains well oriented, the pressure seems to be easing a little on their shoulders. They are certainly still the majority in 2024 to declare that their workload has increased, but they are fewer in number than in previous years, notes the 2024 barometer of executives’ expectations published this Thursday by the General Union of Engineers, Managers and Technicians of the CGT (Ugict).
56% of the 1,000 people in the representative sample interviewed online by ViaVoice from September 9 to 20 complain of extra work, compared to 61% in 2023 and even 69% in 2016. Fewer executives also estimate that their working time has increased (45% compared to 54% in 2019).
A little brake on the extended hours
The 2024 edition of the barometer also reports a slowdown in extended hours. There are still 48% who report working often or from time to time during their days off, but this is 11 points less than the peak of 59% in 2019 and 2020. As for executives working less than 40 hours on average, their weight has increased significantly, rising to 37% in 2024, compared to 30% in 2023 and even 21% in 2021.
If the proportion of very hard workers has not changed (at least 49 hours per week for 12% of executives), the 45 to 48 hour bracket has decreased (16% compared to 21% last year).
Generation effect
“We are starting from a very long way away,” puts Agathe Le Berder, deputy general secretary of the Ugict CGT, into perspective, taking into account the latest figures. And to insist on the importance of a generation effect in the results. “Young people are less accepting than others of extended hours, presenteeism and permanent availability,” she explains.
This is seen in the survey results: 47% of 30-39 year olds say they work less than 40 hours compared to only 32% of 50-59 year olds. This trend was already at work last year and is “infused”, underlines the CGT specialist.
On the salary side, the impact of the surge in inflation on the purchasing power of executives could have increased criticism. However, this is not what the barometer shows. The feeling of not being paid fairly remains important, but the Covid epidemic seems to have marked an inflection point.
In the 2010s, the Ugict barometer reported an almost continuous increase in dissatisfaction with pay. In 2021, half of the executives surveyed did not consider it to be in line with their qualifications, their actual working time, their workload or their involvement. The only item where criticism was not in the majority, even if not by a long shot: suitability for responsibilities. In 2024 of the barometer, 58% of executives judge that their remuneration is in line with their qualifications and the same amount with their responsibilities, 52% judge it to be in line with their actual working time, 50% with their workload and with their involvement, compared to 46% and 43% respectively in 2021.
Confidence in unions is still growing
Furthermore, optimism has also increased regarding managerial practices, even if the score remains low. Having fallen to 12% in 2020, the proportion of executives who judged that they “have rather improved” rose to 18%. One person in three judges that they have, on the contrary, “rather deteriorated” when they were 52%, at their highest in 2014, at the top.
Finally, we note an evolution on teleworking: 45% of executives consider that it is not sufficiently supervised compared to 56% in 2021. But this does not mean that they are not critical, even if the formula is popular . 61% believe they are not sufficiently protected from “excessive working hours” and do not have an effective right to disconnect, a right desired by two thirds of those questioned.
Finally, note that more and more managers are trusting unions to defend their rights or their jobs. The proportion of executives in this case has doubled since 2012 to reach 34% in 2024, while the proportion of them trusting themselves is in the lead but has fallen from 52% to 39%. . Public authorities and employers come far behind at 7%.
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