This article seeks to understand the ways of living and giving meaning to the administration experience of the intermediate managers of a public school-hospital. Research was developed through a case study at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, in which 23 intermediate managers participated. Data was collected by forming a group, in which a photographic intervention was proposed; through individual semi-structured interviews; through documental sources; through direct observation and informal conversations. Data analysis was achieved based on the pertinent theoretical basis. The results of this research indicate that there is no unique way of being an intermediate manager at HCPA; that two administration manners coexist - public and private - in constant tension; that the notion of the immaterial work is pertinent to the hospital reality and that the administration manners form dilemmas to the intermediate managers. In this multiple and heterogeneous field subjectivities are generated and possibilities of experiencing pleasure and suffering at work appear.
Hospital management; intermediate managers; work and subjectivity
