Resumen

SILVA, Patrícia Costa da  y  MERLO, Álvaro Roberto Crespo. Pleasure and suffering of psychologists who work in private companies. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2007, vol.27, n.1, pp. 132-147. ISSN 1414-9893.

This study aims at illustrating the experience of psychologists who work in private companies. We discuss their professional practices, experiences associated to pleasure and suffering in their daily routine as well as theoretical concepts that are basis for their work. It is a qualitative study, in which semi-structured interviews and field notes with 10 wage-earning psychologists of private companies of Porto Alegre and Grande Porto Alegre was used as procedure. The main theories used for reference were the labor psychodynamics, the boarding of the subjectivity and labor and for the analysis of the interviews the analysis of content was used. The results show that the professionals give priority to the activities linked to Organizational Psychology, that is, recruitment, selection, follow up and training. We have not found out cases in which they intervene in the institutional view or have actions towards the mental health of the employees. Their speeches suggest they have a dynamic work style and they refer to a certain "passion" for what they do. They believe in their actions and appreciate their activities linked to people development in the organization. They feel satisfied with people´s recognition and with the space they have where they work according to what they believe in. Their suffering sources are the excessive work load, possible conflicts between the company and the personal values, the organization´s restrictions, lack of recognition and their perception that they belong to a strengthless professional category.

Palabras clave : Work Psychology; Pleasure and suffering; Organizational Psychology.

        · resumen en Portugués     · texto en Portugués     · Portugués ( pdf )