Abstract
The article analyzes the logics of the use of dismissal "for personal reasons" in the management of executives by the major industry groups in France. Based on 60 semi-directed interviews conducted with human resources managers, executives and experts in employment relations, we show that dismissal for personal reasons, in principle originating in the person of the employee, is used as a tool to manage departures in workforce reduction policies. We explain this phenomenon by the existence of ongoing pressures to reduce the French workforce, coupled with a growing individualization of management methods, in the globalization policies of large firms, and we stress its social consequences pertaining to the inequality of treatment face au dismissal and the weakening of the mechanisms of collection regulation.