Résumé (EN)

How does one speak today about one’s time of/on work in organizations in the move ? Does the wording of this time enable to give a meaning to one’s activity, according to Schütz, who considers retrospection and projection from the point of view of a chronological temporality ? We will take into account the contributions of narrative theories that emphasize this “chronological temporality” but also the ones of phenomenological theories that do it on “affective temporality”. We will analyze some extracts of research interviews in which participants to the workplace evoke their time of/on work in a very affective way with difficulties to project themselves in the future or to read their past. If it is not possible to make a list of the discursive units that refer to an “affective” narrative temporality, we propose however in conclusion a summary of the different aspects located in the extracts. The way of telling the theme of permanent changes that affect the workplace today finally queries us because it does not appears linked to a specific category of staff but is spotted at numerous levels of responsibilities in the organization. In the suspension moment of the research interview, the main theme that emerges is the fact that one feels dominated by a time impossible to organize or to control. This theme is said in a very affective way. In others words, participants speak about a time which “affects” them in the phenomenological meaning, with resignation, worry, and even suffering.