This work is aimed at debating the meaning of granted autonomy as the organizational corollary of a subjective mobilization demand. Labor in undergoing the contradiction between the eulogy to autonomy and an increasing normalized labor organization, where being autonomous is the rule. The concept of labor autonomy resorts to two issues: the operational dimension and the identity dimension. The transformation of labor into a good whose possession demands sacrifices and the transformation of the job into a privilege culminate at subjection of the worker's very person, without really raising the issue of labor re-appropriation, which a priori follows labor autonomy. The core issue, however, cannot be diluted into this paradox between real autonomy and granted autonomy: the search for autonomy is placed out of the economic logic and within a logic of values and achievement of meaning, while granted autonomy is part of an instrumental logic.
normalization of labor; granted autonomy; symbolic gains; instrumental logic