Beginning Work as a Director at Juvenile Protection Services in France

The article considers the nature of the first days in the job for personnel in the “Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (PJJ).” The research, undertaken between 2004 and 2005, shows the tensions which mark this, particularly because it is undertaken within an organisation which guarantees the provision of accommodation to young people. The job hence creates tests for personnel, forcing each person back onto their own personal resources. Rather than defending the idea that this creates an initiation test, the study shows that it tends rather to reveal institutional shortcomings: because of the collective nature of the management, the contradictions and tensions which run through the organisation are lived out through interpersonal conflict within the teams.