Expert | Evelyne Léonard (university professor): stay curious about the world of work!

After my rheto — the final year for the French — I decided to study psychology. I chose a master's degree in clinical adult psychology, but I took all the options related to orientation, work and even entrepreneurship.

So I have always learned to look at work-related situations from a psychological angle.

I have this habit — and this skill — of asking myself a thousand questions about human relationships, about the meaning that each person gives to his or her actions, about why we make this choice rather than another, about our reactions, and about the place we want to take in the world.

That's why, for this episode, I went looking for a person who doesn't speak the same language as me. A person who is an expert in the work, but who analyzes it from the company's point of view: a different point of view from mine.

Evelyne Léonard is a professor at the university and teaches, among other things, human resources for business school students. What is super pleasant about Evelyne is that she brings a lot of distance, concreteness, realism to what work is all about.

In the episode:

• She explained to me, basically, what work is,

• it reminds us of the two main dimensions of an employment contract (spoiler: it's super interesting),

• it poses the three major challenges of the future,

• And she shares the added value of having an analytical look at her job — and staying curious about the world of work around us!

Evelyne was also vice-rector of personnel policy at a university (a huge liner in terms of employees, so yes: she knows what she's talking about).
In addition, she chose to do her thesis on the link between employers and unions. I don't know if you realize what it implies... But someone who chooses this subject is clearly a woman who really likes to put people back at the heart of the work!

The academic work of these people was mentioned in the episode:

• Sociologist: Claude Dubar

• Sociologist: Renaud Sainsaulieu

• Philosopher: André Gorz

• Professor Emeritus: Patricia Vendramin

• Lawyer: Alain Supiot