The article discusses how productive restructuring in bank work has affected ways of working and being of workers of a century-old bank organization that established programs to encourage voluntary resignation as one of its new management tools. It is a case study that investigated 104 workers in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina who joined the third round of one such program in 2001, as well as five managers and three human resource workers directly involved with the Programs or with the people who quit. Data collection happened through questionnaire, semi-structured individual interviews and document sources. Data collected were subjected to content analysis. Research results point out that the productive restructuring of bank work marks the move from a culture of stability and safety to one of instability and insecurity that affects employees' ways of being and working. Therefore, the investment desired by the company from work subjects is a sign of total and unconditional subjective mobilization to its project and its profitability aims.
work productive restructuring; labor organization; bank work; subjectivity