Understanding work, your own included

A person's status depends not on what their contract says but on the conditions under which they work. Digital platforms have put this old rule back at the centre of debate.

A series of experiments showed that a reward could diminish interest in an activity people already enjoyed. What this result means for paid work has been the subject of a long disagreement.

What an organisation asks for and what people do to achieve it never quite coincide. French-language ergonomics has made this gap its object of study.

Meals, transport, health cover, equipment: part of remuneration does not pass through the payslip. Its tax treatment explains much of its shape.

Many people occupy a different position from their parents. A large share of those movements says nothing about how open the society is.

Each organisation calculates its own in its own way. Comparing two rates published by different sources almost never makes sense.

Symbolic recognition schemes are cheap and widely deployed. Available experiments find real and short-lived effects.

Holding several posts may broaden skills or multiply constraints. Surveys make it possible to distinguish the two configurations.

Three separate bodies were merged into one. The debate turns less on the principle than on the number of representatives and their specialisation.

A large share of the figures about work circulating in the press comes from commissioned studies. A few checks are enough to situate what they are worth.

The accident of graduation year produces earnings gaps still measurable ten years later. The result is among the most solid in labour economics.

A bonus tied to a group's result dilutes the link between individual effort and gain. Theory predicts it does not work; the data are more nuanced.

Removing assigned desks allows the leased floor area to be reduced. Effects on the work itself are less studied than the property argument suggests.

The latter is a ratio whose denominator moves. The former relates employment to the population, which makes it less sensitive to movements into inactivity.