What I do
I am a writer and speaker about the future of work with a feminist perspective.
After 10 years of teaching English and American studies in France, I switched to the world of Human Resources. For seven years now I have been working with clients on how organisations, management, work space, and social protection are impacted by the unbundling of jobs and the empowerment of freelancers.
I believe that the values of craftsmanship (autonomy, creativity, responsibility) will emancipate workers and help companies create more value(s). Work as we knew it in the age of the mass economy is dead. Long live the age of individuation and networks!
Also I believe that the legacy of a historic sexual division of labour has enduring traces in today’s society. Women’s work, whether paid or unpaid, is valued less. Yet there would be no productivity without the care and support of largely female work. It’s high time we learned to value it more!
Since January 2019, I’ve been an expert at the Welcome to the Jungle Lab, a leading media that helps companies develop “employer branding for the new work generation”.
My publications, in English and in French, appear on the following websites: Medium, Welcome to the Jungle, Malt, LSE Business Review ...
In January 2020 I launched a newsletter on Substack about the future of work, with a feminist perspective. Subscribe here!
During the pandemic, I launched a new media in French with my partner, Nicolas Colin. It’s called Nouveau Départ. Subscribe here!
Since 2021 I’ve also contributed to Vives Media, a collective newsletter to empower 45+ women launched by Bayard.
You should also check my personal accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Publications
I now have a newsletter about the future of work with a feminist perspective. It’s called Laetitia@Work. Subscribe here! 🇬🇧
For my media Nouveau Départ I record lots of podcasts and do interviews with inspiring people. Subscribe here! 🇫🇷
I’ve had FOUR books published so far:
My latest book was published in April 2022! It’s called En finir avec la productivité. Critique féministe d’une notion phare de l’économie et du travail (which could be translated to “Goodbye productivity. A feminist critique of a key notion in economics and work”) (with French publisher Payot) 🇫🇷 “The way it is measured, productivity ignores so many things... An hour of human work is more or less productive depending on essential factors (being well nourished, being in good physical and psychological health), which themselves require work. Just as GDP (gross domestic product) ignores negative externalities such as pollution and exploitation, productivity is a blind indicator that ignores power relations and networks of relationships.”
I wrote Welcome to the Jungle, 100 idées innovantes pour recruter des talents et les faire grandir (Vuibert) 🇫🇷 together with Welcome to the Jungle’s CEO Jérémy Clédat. It's about innovative HR practices pertaining to onboarding, recruiting, sourcing talent, employer branding developing talent, work space. It is composed of 100 short chapters and designed to help HR professionals make their HR departments fit for the 21st century.
Du Labeur à l’ouvrage (🇫🇷) was published in 2019 (Calmann-Lévy). The book (whose title in English could be From Labour to Work or From Graft to Craft) deals with the unbundling of jobs and the future of work. As 20th-century institutions like scientific management, social protection and labour unions are being dismantled, workers need to invent a new “bundle” around the values of craftsmanship. Indeed the end of work is nowhere in sight: the future of work is in proximity services, care, empathy and traditionally female activities. The challenges will be to measure value differently and make the future of work inclusive and sustainable.
My very first book was published in France by publisher Armand Colin in 2016: Faut-il avoir peur du numérique ? 25 questions pour vous faire votre opinion—written with Nicolas Colin.
I’ve written more than 200 articles and about 20 ebooks for Welcome to the Jungle. Here are some recent publications:
More about me
Multiculti
I was educated in France but I have a German mother. After nearly 35 years of living in Paris, I longed for a new cultural challenge. So I moved to London with my family and we lived there for 5 years. Since October 2020, we’ve been living in Munich, Germany. I find Bavaria to be quite the cultural challenge too!
After more than 8 years of life abroad, I finally understand how completely French I am! 🥖 As Erin Meyer wrote, “When you are in and of a culture—as fish are in and of water—it is often difficult or even impossible to see that culture. Often people who have spent their lives living in one culture see only regional and individual differences and therefore conclude, ‘My national culture does not have a clear character’.”
Miscellaneous
I’m a black belt 2d dan in jujitsu, love all martial arts and encourage all women to experience the joys of finding their inner warrior! Also a yoga enthusiast, I enjoy doing inversions and arm balances. With jujitsu and yoga I’ve learned to fall and get back up, and go upside down. Since we moved to Bavaria, I’ve discovered the huge joy that comes with hiking in the mountains ⛰️
I read a lot of books about the future of work but I believe it is essential to keep reading for pleasure only. So I read at least one or two novels each month, mostly by female writers. Recently I’ve enjoyed Zineb Mekouar’s La poule et son cumin and Lisa Taddeo’s Animal. I also read a lot of essays about feminism and sociology. My most recent discovery, titled Le Boys Club, is by a Canadian writer named Martine Delvaux.
Education
HEC Paris Degree in Business
I obtained a master’s degree in "Management of Art and Culture" at HEC, a leading French Business School where I studied from 1998 to 2002.
Université Paris III "Sorbonne Nouvelle"
I obtained the Agrégation d'anglais in 2006. The "Agrégation" is a demanding civil service competitive examination for senior teaching positions in France’s public education system. I chose a specialisation in “American civilisation".
Contact
Wearing a Kimono
2nd dan in 2010
Doing a Headstand
Going upside down to get a better perspective
With Jeremy Clédat, CEO of Welcome to the Jungle, my co-author.