Has the world of work sacrificed spelling?

HASOn the evening after the French footballers were eliminated from the last World Cup, Emmanuel Macron wanted to be kind quickly – too quickly -. “The Blues made us dream,” he wrote on Twitter. If this ugly mistake in conjugation can undoubtedly be attributed to haste, the President of the Republic was in line with a large part of his countrymen that day: he was angry about spelling. According to Voltaire’s barometer, the French today only know 45% of grammatical and lexical rules…

HASOn the evening after the French footballers were eliminated from the last World Cup, Emmanuel Macron wanted to be kind quickly – too quickly -. “The Blues made us dream,” he wrote on Twitter. If this ugly mistake in conjugation can undoubtedly be attributed to haste, the President of the Republic was in line with a large part of his countrymen that day: he was angry about spelling. According to Voltaire’s barometer, French today only master 45% of grammatical and lexical rules. Thus deficient from the moment they leave high school, most would carry this cumbersome baggage until, however perilously, they enter the workforce. And every season, it makes the employers’ eyes bleed more. “It’s getting worse and worse,” worries Marie-Caroline, responsible for more than 150 employees at a large insurance group. “As much as I tolerate a typo in an email, it is assumed that the cover letter was proofread and corrected before sending. So to me it’s straight up garbage. »

“Catastrophe”

An intransigence that, on the other hand, would be tolerated by an increasing number of recruiters, forced to go further to fill some professions in short supply. Thus, according to OpinionWay, only half of HR managers believe that spelling still influences the exclusion of candidates. “It remains unbearable in my field, but I know colleagues who no longer have a choice,” confirms Valérie Vallet, director of human resources for the trade union of family associations in the Gironde. “I mean the health sector, where we can no longer do without a nurse. Plus, in certain industries, we sometimes settle for speed dating. » A board member of the National Association of HR Directors, the latter nevertheless insists that the spelling is not a hierarchical-archaic whim. “Besides a certain nonchalance, a letter full of mistakes can be a sign of bad oral communication. And if the spelling isn’t up to par, I’m afraid neither is the reasoning. »

“It remains unbearable in my field, but I know colleagues who have no choice. »

First thought to be generational, the poor grasp of French now seems to be affecting all age groups that have been fed haphazard French instruction for around thirty years. When writing strengths don’t necessarily come to mind anymore, school would be a source of word problems. Bruno Dewaele is partly responsible for the 30 years he spent polishing the institution’s benches. “I am participating in this disaster because this discipline is clearly no longer a priority of national education,” explains the professor crowned “World Spelling Champion” during a competition involving 112 countries at the UN headquarters.

The complexity of our language is to blame, consternated linguists swear. “It’s time to update it, partly because of its opacity and quirks. » In a column published last fall, the collective then urged the government to apply the spelling corrections from 1990. Verified by the French Academy but published in the Official Journal without being binding, they promised, among other things, to delete the circumflex when it has no role, to simplify some duplicates consonants or to remove some impurities, like peeling “onions” better. For better or worse, these intellectuals are now campaigning for past participle reform. “Easy solution,” Bruno Dewaele fumes in return. “Agree with the rationalization of our language, but only marginally. When we no longer pay attention to form, we tend to doubt substance. When I see, for example, all the errors on ministerial websites, I get chills, and I’m not talking about journalists. »

While nine out of ten work emails suffer from at least one spelling mistake, there is also the paradox that we have never written so much at work. An avalanche of ever faster, not to say sloppy, exchanges, when the employee sometimes does not bother with proofreading for fear that he will not respond sufficiently. Eager to lead by example, Marie-Caroline herself followed Voltaire’s program. With regard to these 100,000 certificates that confirm the mastery of the French language every year, the president of the organization emphasizes the real awareness in the business world. “For 73% of decision-makers, French is a priority, far ahead of English,” assures Mélanie Viénot. “People managers are very sensitive to this approach, which shows the ability to ask questions,” supports Valérie Vallet.