Civil servant's idleness exposé

A 30-YEAR-OLD civil servant has been suspended from public service for two years without pay after she published a novel depicting her fellow fonctionnaires as lazy and corrupt.

Aurélie Boullet, who worked at Aquitaine Regional Council’s international affairs desk, says she wrote Absolument Dé-bor-dée! (Absolutely Snowed Under) because she was unhappy with lack of work,
squandering and general incompetence. The satirical fiction, published by Albin Michel, is subtitled: “How to work 35 hours... in a month” (referring to the legal 35-hour French work week).

Using the pseudonym Zoé Shepard, she tried to make sure nothing could trace her anecdotes to her Aquitaine workplace, but she was identified by a former classmate and colleague.
In the book, she describes life as a fonctionnaire in a mairie near Paris: eight-hour weeks and 35-hour months, bosses hiring interns to fill junior grades so as to move their mistresses up in the
hierarchy, taking days off to go hunting and spending a week changing a document’s type face.

Characters, given nicknames like Coconne (airhead), Simplet (simple-minded), The Boss and the Don, are caught up in a succession of episodes exposing a dysfunctional service.

Ms Shepard was accused of breaching the region’s confidence and insulting her colleagues by a council disciplinary panel. She told Connexion: “It is totally out of proportion, since my lawyer proved there was no breach of confidence by showing that, from what I wrote, the story could have been based anywhere.

“I was deeply shocked that five out of seven people on the panel did not take the time to read the book. It was not independent because there were no union representatives. Service heads were picked at random to sit on it.”

In March 2007, Ms Boullet joined the council after studies at the Sorbonne, Sciences-Po and Inet (Institut National des Etudes Territoriales).

She could not have known that a former Inet student who worked for the region would spot her writing style, then identify her (disguised) voice on national radio. “As soon as he heard about the book, he recognised me. It was confirmed by the radio and he denounced me.”

Aurélie Boullet, who describes herself as a “martyr of local government”, said Jean-Luc Mercadié, the general services director (DGS), then took action against her. “For the DGS, I was a problem employee, because I had refused to turn a blind eye to the squandering, and that was his excuse for going after my head.”

During the disciplinary hearing, she said he hinted that she slept with her director, which she denied. She added that he told a journalist she went for 88 job interviews in three years during her post, when it was only two.

Ms Boullet insists the book was not solely based on experiences at the council and that, while the characters were based on a mixture of traits from real-life people, including herself, none was a direct representation of a particular colleague.

She added: “I did everything I could so people would not recognise the region. I even showed the book to friends of colleagues. I was very careful: there are no names in it. The fact that people think they can see themselves in the characters is an excuse; it is not true; and we were all aware of the kinds of dysfunction which I saw happening and told about in the book.”

The book sold 10,000 copies even before the story was picked up on by the media, and 25,000 were reprinted after shops sold out. The author is now awaiting final confirmation of the region’s ruling, which rests with Alain Rousset, the council’s socialist president.

If necessary, Ms Boullet said she will appeal to the administrative court. She is now looking for a job and plans to keep writing as a hobby.