Olivia Bugault: Why did you tell your misfortunes in a book?

Margaux Gilquin: I was very angry because I fought so hard to find a job after my dismissal in 2008. And today I find myself with the SSA (special allowance of solidarity - help for people who have exhausted their right to unemployment). People should know that those who are called "assisted" do not want to be, nobody wants to live with 487 euros a month! Nobody wants to sell his furniture, his personal belongings like I did! But this anger, I turned it into courage, I no longer waste time turning, I go.

"When one wants one can" one says: is it true when, like you, we chained 7 years of professional galleys?

No, it's wrong, wanting is not enough. Recruiters do not want or can not employ senior citizens. Recently, an employer looking for salespeople told me "I can not hire you because, after 50 years, you no longer have the same ability to integrate information." I heard it !

Pôle Emploi, to read your book, seems totally unfit to help you?

Since I live in the neighborhood of Bordeaux, I have advisers who really take care of me. On the other hand, in Paris, it was really horror. You must register and complete a file to find out if you are eligible for the allowances. And then, no support, no one to explain the methodology to you while everything has changed: the terms and methods. I did not know how to look. When you are 50 years old, you do not know the job search sites. I lost time because of their incompetence, lack of responsiveness and information.

It is contagious unemployment?

It's a problem that can happen to everyone so it's scary. I lost a lot of friends during this period and those I have today are often in the same situation as me. At first it was frustrating, but my priority was finding a job. Friendship is important but it makes me already sick enough to have to count my pennies to not get upset about the rest.

Would young people have only two options on the job market: to become sharks or to be crushed?

Today, in the labor market, people are taught to survive. The young recruiters that I met get their teeth on job seekers in a way probably learned in business school. There is no more humanity in a job interview. I spent interviews with young women who said to me: "listen to Granny, at 50 years you are always assistant and I am project manager". It's cowardly, but can we blame them for being a victim of this system? I do not blame them.

How do you live with 487 euros a month?

At the moment, I am happily lodged. Every day, you have to count all your expenses. Sometimes I slip and I exceed 50 euros but it is very rare because I constantly deprive myself. New clothes, I do not know what it is. There I have a pair of shoe to make resemble but I can not. I do not smoke anymore. I do very few outings. But that's not the problem. I come from a popular milieu, I knew all that gamine. The difference is that in the past, to deprive oneself of the common lot while today, one sees the others live without privation beside. This puts me in terrible suffering.

Yet, there is a lot of self-deprecation and humor in your book ...

You have to, or else you take a rope! That is what I said to the Minister of Labor, Myriam El Khomri. She received me because she appreciated my book and we stayed 1h30 together. She thought I made the figures more human. But when she asked me how I saw the future, I replied "at the end of a rope"!

"The last salary" of Margaux Gilquin at XO editions at 19.90 euros.