Les agents de l'intérim. Sociographie d'un groupe professionnel invisible, acteur et objet de la fragilisation du salariat.

The permanent staff of temporary work agencies . Sociography of an invisible professional group, actor and object of the weakening of the wage-earning system.

• Auteur / Autrice : Jeanne Maudoux
• Direction : Jean-Luc Deshayes
• Type : Projet de thèse
• Discipline(s) : Sociologie
• Date : Inscription en doctorat le 20/09/2021
• Etablissement(s) : Tours
• Ecole(s) doctorale(s) : Sciences de la Société : Territoires, Economie, Droit - SSTED
• Partenaire(s) de recherche : Laboratoire : CItés, TERritoires, Environnement et Sociétés
• Partenaire(s) de recherche : Equipe de recherche : COST - Construction Sociale et politique des espaces, des normes et des Trajectoires

Mots clés

Mots clés libres

Permanents de l'intérim

Profession

Salariat

Permanent staff

Profession

Employment

Temporary work agencies

Résumé

La thèse portera sur le personnel permanent des entreprises de travail temporaire (ETT) : les employés administratifs et commerciaux des agences. Elle visera d'abord à appréhender la genèse et la constitution de ce groupe professionnel, ses normes, représentations et les rapports au travail et à l'emploi qu'il véhicule. Comparativement aux travailleurs intérimaires, peu de travaux ont été réalisés sur le personnel permanent des ETT. Ils jouent pourtant un rôle structurant sur le marché du travail : les permanents des agences sélectionnent les travailleurs et font l'intermédiaire pour leurs clients, les entreprises utilisatrices (EU) ; leur activité mêle commerce, recrutement, gestion, impératifs de rentabilité, d'efficacité, de rapidité et «d'empathie », avec le souci constant de l'image de l'entreprise. Ils sont aussi salariés de leur employeur. Comment les permanents gèrent-ils ces contradictions ? Comment mettent-ils à distance l'étiquette infâmante de « marchands d'hommes » (Caire, 1973) qui leur est volontiers apposée ? A travers l'analyse des trajectoires professionnelles, des pratiques et des discours des permanents d'ETT, la thèse se proposera ensuite de saisir comment ces professionnels façonnent (de par leurs actions, formations, professionnalisation, syndicat etc.) une partie des marchés de l'emploi et du travail. L'intérim a en effet joué de longue date un rôle de laboratoire des transformations sociales, historiques, économiques voire idéologiques du marché du travail en France. Pourtant, ce secteur est aujourd'hui soumis à la concurrence d'entreprises nouvelles, qui s'inspirent du modèle Uber pour mettre en relation, via une interface, des entreprises demandeuses et des « indépendants ». Les permanents des agences sont donc aujourd'hui menacés, comme tant d'autres, par la concurrence des algorithmes, qui marginalisent la dimension revendiquée comme « humaine », voire « sociale » de leur activité. Le projet de thèse s'inscrit donc à la croisée des sociologies de l'emploi et du travail et d'une sociologie des professions/groupes professionnels.

The thesis will focus on the permanent staff of temporary work agencies (ETT): the administrative and commercial employees of the agencies. It will first aim to understand the genesis and constitution of this professional group, its norms, representations and the relationships to work and employment that it conveys. Compared to temporary workers, little work has been done on the permanent staff of ETTs. Yet they play a structuring role in the labor market: the permanent staff of the agencies select workers and act as intermediaries for their clients, the user enterprises (EU); their activity mixes commerce, recruitment, management, imperatives of profitability, efficiency, speed and 'empathy', with a constant concern for the image of the enterprise. They are also employees of their employer. How do permanent employees manage these contradictions? How do they distance themselves from the infamous label of 'merchants of men' (Caire, 1973) that is readily applied to them? Through the analysis of the professional trajectories, practices and discourses of ETT staff, the thesis will then attempt to understand how these professionals shape (through their actions, training, professionalization, unions, etc.) a part of the employment and labor markets. The temporary work sector has long played a role as a laboratory for social, historical, economic and even ideological transformations of the French labor market. However, this sector is now subject to competition from new companies, which are inspired by the Uber model to put in touch, via an interface, companies in need and 'freelancers'. The permanent staff of the agencies are thus threatened, like so many others, by the competition of algorithms, which marginalize the dimension claimed as 'human', even 'social' of their activity. The thesis project is therefore at the crossroads of the sociology of employment and work and the sociology of professions and professional groups. The research work will be based on the fieldwork undertaken over the last two years in Master 1 and 2 and the contacts established with various ETTs can be used to quickly begin collecting material. An agreement in principle for an internship has already been reached with an ETT, which will allow us to conduct observations in the agency. The agencies surveyed, with a diversity of sizes, statuses, fields and places of activity, will be located in Tours and its surroundings, in order to analyze their territorial socio-economic anchoring. The observation of the interactions between the permanent staff of ETT and the temporary workers, but also between the salesmen and the customers will give to grasp as finely as possible the complexities and the contradictions of this work. Interviews will be conducted to contribute to a better understanding of the way in which the permanent staff represent themselves and experience their activities within the temporary employment agencies. The interviews conducted this year with young recruiters and sales representatives, new to the profession, will be continued in order to be able to understand the dynamics and evolution of the individuals as they enter the profession, and then as they become socialized. In parallel, we will approach organizations such as Prism'emploi (the temping union), or the specialized recruitment school (Esmae), in order to conduct interviews and collect specialized grey literature to understand how the profession has been built and what it produces about itself, its employees, temping agents, workers and the job market. Here again, the knowledge of this sector gained from the master's degree proves invaluable in opening up these fields quickly. The thesis will thus propose an anchored sociography of an invisible group, the temporary work agents, by enriching the commonly mobilized reading of a triangular relationship between temporary work companies, user companies and temporary workers.