This article intends to research the role of complaints in the discourse of workers of work organizations, as seen from Christophe Dejours's theories and central concepts. Based on the conception that work is one of the possibilities of intensely experiencing one's suffering and trying to overcome it, one becomes aware of a creative suffering as a rebellious stance against the organization of work. Complaints evoke suffering as a powerful group bonding strategy whereas the construction of an intersubjective meaning through the ties produced by discourses in the group in the attempt to resist illness as a group. Strong ties of union among the members of a work team result in a group defense mechanism that is more efficient and less expensive than the individual ones. On the other hand, paradoxically, it is a defense mechanism that, demonstrating the failure of other individual attempts of protection against suffering, contributes to the organization's objectives and also to the resignation, repetition and stagnation of the individual.
complaint; discourse; defense mechanism; collective work; organizations
