Full bibliography

Using a study of linemen, it is shown how analyzing the subjective experience of linemen can enrich the understanding of work activities. The demonstration is based essentially on the phenomenon of defensive strategies, which allow human beings to maintain their psychic equilibrium despite the harmful effects of work organization. Finally, it is proposed that ergonomics should pay closer attention to the more personal phenomena that inevitably influence work activities. The challenge for ergonomists is to accept that work dynamics cannot be explained using only a production rationality that speaks of loads, capacities and physiological and cognitive limits.