Stress at work, cult of performance: The well-being of LEGO employees

Several of you have pointed out to me the very short article posted by Courrier International regarding the pressure that LEGO employees face at work. The article is succinct and it refers to a more substantial dossier published yesterday on the front page of the Danish daily Western-Posten.

Anxious to know more before reporting here on the situation described, I therefore subscribed to the online version of this daily (it's free for the first 40 days) to read the article which motivated the publication of International mail.

That being said, it would seem that LEGO, often presented as paradise on earth for all those who dream of working one day in contact with their favorite toys, is not spared by the perpetual quest for performance and profitability at the expense of the well-being of its employees.

By reading the article of Western-Posten, we therefore learn that the LEGO group, led by its savior and current CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, is putting pressure on its employees. Sophisticated performance evaluation methods are in place, each employee is constantly assessed on various criteria on which a possible bonus depends. Nothing new here, these methods are used in many businesses, large and small, and they have been proven successful when used with good judgment.

But employees of the group are protesting against these methods considered to be counterproductive and which are the source of stress and discomfort that are gaining ground, not only at the LEGO headquarters in Billund but also in various offshore departments. around the world.

Mads Nipper, marketing manager at LEGO since 1991 and who left the company this year, weighs the statements of certain employees or their union representatives by recalling that the rigorous management put in place in the 2000s was necessary to save the group of an announced bankruptcy and that it has borne fruit.

Some employees, however, evoke the permanent confusion between private and professional life, the high availability required by the geographical distribution of the various LEGO entities on a global scale which means that somewhere on the planet there is always an open office, the misuse of the evaluation methods in place by some local managers recruited to support the development of the brand over the past ten years anxious to promote their work and their ego to the detriment of that of their colleagues, etc ...

Anyone who complains about the gradual disappearance of what they call "The LEGO Spirit" would like to point out, however, that they remain grateful to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the savior of the business that sustains them ...

The situation described above is nothing new for anyone who knows the world of work. Constant pressure, the cult of results, and the near-sick concern for performance are common elements in today's business. But for many, LEGO remains a great place to work, and regular surveys of the group's employees confirm this impression: They were 56% in 2013 (62% in 2011) to indicate that they would recommend to others. to come and work at LEGO.