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Two Days, One Night and The Measure of a Man Subjective struggles in the contemporary world of work: Fighting for what?

2016; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3917/mana.192.0133

1286-4692

Hélène Picard,

Digital Economy and Work Transformation

Two Days, One Night and The Measure of a Man Subjective struggles in the contemporary world of work: Fighting for what?Caught up in the competitive gears / Small employees full of sparkles and glints / Often are more insane than the rules themselves.So, if competition never ceases to tease you / Come on, let us remain as humane as we can.One gets exploited / one exploits in turn / This world turns us into small-time tormentors.Rocé 1 "We put up a good fight, didn't we?I am content 2 ."Sandra (played by Marion Cotillard), Two Days, One Night (J-P.& L. Dardenne, 2014) !In the movie Two Days, One Night, the main character, Sandra, works for Solwall, a Belgian solar panels factory.Returning after almost a year-long sick leave, it is unclear whether she will be allowed to keep her job.The factory manager delegates responsibility for this decision to her colleagues, who must vote either to give up their annual €1000 bonus so that Sandra can keep her job, or to lay her off and keep their bonuses.In the first poll, the majority vote against Sandra's reintegration.Yet, because of suspicions that Jean-Marc, the plant's foreman, pressurized people before the first vote, a second is to be held on the coming Monday.The focus of the film is, then, on the weekend, during which Sandra tries to meet face-to-face with each of her colleagues to convince them to switch their vote. !Beyond this simple plot, the first few minutes of the film begin to raise questions, particularly apparent in the dialogue between Sandra and her husband, that go on to structure the narrative.Such questions first arise during an argument with her husband, after Sandra receives a call from her colleague Juliette who wants to head back to the factory that Friday night to get the manager to agree to a second vote.For Sandra, still fighting to recover from her long depression, to learn that all but two of her colleagues have voted against her is tough news and she wants to give up: "they would rather have their bonus, it's normal".Her husband, however, sees things differently: "no, it isn't normal.The only way to stop crying is to fight.You have to fight this", he says.This raises questions about what can be considered "normal", or rather legitimate about the dilemma that this pretence of a democratic vote presents.What is the nature of the fight that Sandra "has to" fight?How will she be able to justify this fight to herself and particularly to the colleagues that she will try to convince to give up their €1000 (close to a month's salary) bonuses, so that she can keep her job?Finally, what has Sandra's struggle really been about as we see her walking away from the factory at the end of the film, telling her husband on the phone: "we put up a good fight… I am happy"?!The film stimulates a critical reflection on the stakes of such subjective M@n@gement, vol.