[Paradoxical situation in the organization of work: a threat for workers' mental health]

For the past decades, in a world of high competition, firms struggle to regain an advantage over foreign competition. Thus, new management trends, usually based on price reduction, high quality products and speed production are now part of strategic reorganization plans of high impact on work organization particularly in terms of large demands put on workers, and take a heavy toll on workers. Thus the incidence of mental health problems in the work place has risen sharply in recent years and currently counts as one of the leading causes of work absenteeism. A study based on the psychodynamic of work was conducted among machine operators working in a high-technology company in the aviation sector. Important management and technological transformations were recently introduced in the factory. The content analysis of the study shows that the work organization places the operator in a double bind situation. They are caught between an injunction where the capacity of making a high quality product is directly opposed to that demanding speed production. Moreover, severe and arbitrary sanctions are applied when the operators do not comply with either injunction. The operators are put in a deadlock situation that creates fear and anxiety. They are obliged to turn to defensive psychological strategies such as individualism and cheating. Those defensive strategies have negative impacts on social relationships.