Suicide Epidemic Sweeps France Telecom

(CBS)  If you work, no one has to tell you that stress is part of just about every job. But at one company it's out of control.

France Telecom is undergoing a major restructuring with the goal of cutting $2.25 billion in expenses. But as the company strives to save money, it's losing employees to an epidemic of suicide, CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports from Paris.

Ludovic Nouclerq started hallucinating about hanging himself one year ago. He was a manager at France Telecom and was told he had failed to achieve corporate goals, a common experience in the working world.

But Nouclerq claims that in the case of this giant company, undermining employees is a deliberate management strategy that has led to suicide.

"I knew that what I will do won't be successful," said Nouclerq, who says he was being set up to fail.

France Telecom began a massive re-organization three years ago, cutting one fifth of its workforce. Since then employees have been going to a lot of funerals. There have been 26 in the last 18 months.

In France, the suicide rate is 16 suicides per 100,000. At France Telecom, it is 17.6.

Work is usually not the reason for suicide. But in the case of France Telecom, many of those who have committed or attempted suicide have directly blamed the company and its management for creating working conditions that have made their lives intolerable.

The suicides and dozens of attempts are happening all over the French network. Suicide notes tell similar stories, blaming constant pressure to resign, impossible goals, frequent forced relocations and chaotic reorganization.

One woman jumped to her death from her fifth floor office window after she was told her job was changing yet again and that she was being assigned to another new boss.

"I'd rather die," she wrote.

Yonnel Dervin stabbed himself in the stomach at work after his manager told him he no longer had the skills the company needed.

"You're in your own bubble. Too bad. It's a bubble without oxygen. You understand? You just can't live anymore," Dervin said through a translator.

Noelle Burgi has studied the France Telecom problem and says suicide is just the tip of the iceberg.

"People are treated like numbers," Burgi said. "It's a cumulative process."

The company's CEO, Didier Lombard, was booed by employees after yet another suicide. Pressured by the French government to stop the deaths, Didier has had to announce the suspension of job transfers and corporate re-organization at least until the end of the year.

But suicide attempts at the company continue and no one thinks these measures will put an end to this epidemic any time soon.

[frenchcoco]

Sorry

? = euros the european money

[frenchcoco]

Hello,

Why the statistics are not during all 2008 and 2009???

The figures are misleading.
We must take the whole years and not over a short period.
It'sa bit like taking the day that a plane crashed with 200 people aboard. If we compare the number of dead air and the dead in car. The aircraft will appear more dangerous.
Some figures

Average gross monthly earnings at France Telecom: 2924 ?
Average monthly income of an official: 2127 ? (net)
Monthly income of an employee's private (net): ? 1683 women, 2075 men ?

Suicide rates in France: 16 per 100 000 inhabitants
Suicide rates in France Telecom: 11.7 per 100 000 employees
Suicide rates in France from 25-64 years: 21.6 per 100 000 people
Suicide rates for the French: 26.4 per 100 000
Suicide rate for French women: 7.2 per 100 000
% Of women in France Telecom: 37%
France Telecom employs about 100 000 people in France.
We should therefore compared to the rest of the French population had 19 suicides per year in France Telecom staff, it is at 13 ...

Conclusion:
France Telecom is not a business where one commits suicide the most.

Note:
Nothing indicates the cause or causes of suicides in the statistics.

[jinks_smith]

Declare that today:God is my source. He meets all my needs according to His riches. As abundance comes to me, I commit to using it to establish God?s covenant in the earth. No matter what?s going on in the economy, I have a covenant with God. God will not forsake me during a difficult time. He is Jehovah-Jireh, my provider and He will never forsake me. I am not afraid to give, because IT WILL be given back to me in abundance. I am blessed in good times, and blessed in bad times, because GOD is my Father and my provider! - G.D.

[denvermorgan3000]

my company is playing these stupid games too its like they will
ask you at gun point if its ok what they are doing but you have no choice but to accept it or get fired

[Ceres6]

The main problem with suicide is that after you do it, you cannot change your mind.

[Amandahar]

Very very shock!Don't fear to dead,why afraid of change job and pressure of work?

[maul555]

A quote taken from another site, by another person whom said the following better than I could:



zahadum party planner Quote 2009-11-22 09:59:25 PM

For those who look at the stats of 16 suicide per 100K and 17.6 at the french telecom, understand that the issue isn't just the number of suicides, but the cause of the suicides. Generally speaking most suicides are not work related. The majority of these are. That's the problem, and the point trying to be made.

Studies show that higher levels of work stress make men at greater risk for heart attacks, cause more more frequent and longer spells of absenteeism due to illness, greater risk of mental health issues, more frequent use of drugs (legal and not legal) as well as alchohol, not to mention lower productivity. Note that many jobs are stressful, but many jobs are **needlessly** stressful because of incompetance by management be it local or higher ups.

In Europe, suicide is more common then in the US. So the anti-French comments are out of place. In Europe suicide is seen as a way of expressing discontent with a situation. Also realize that in Europe a person's job is more closely tied to the sense of self as people often work in the same job for decades. In the US we pretty much expect to be working somewhere else in 5 years. The idea of a spending your life as a career employee is now a quaint memory for most US workers. So when management ina US company sets you up to fail by creating unattainable goals, forcing you to do work you don't know how to do, moving you out of state because they can and managing thru terror, you say "fark this place" and quit. Not so in Europe. Thus more then half the suicides specifically refer to the work environment as the cause.

[jaykay3141]

/* "Work is usually not the reason for suicide. But in the case of France Telecom, many of those who have committed or attempted suicide have directly blamed the company and its management for creating working conditions that have made their lives intolerable. The suicides and dozens of attempts are happening all over the French network. Suicide notes tell similar stories, blaming constant pressure to resign, impossible goals, frequent forced relocations and chaotic reorganization. " */

The French envied American productivity and efficiency so they elected "Sarkozy l'americain" (Sarkozy the American) instead of Segolene Royal. But they didn't realize our wonderful economy produces what it does by treating workers as expendable resources to be ground up and discarded whenever the CEO wants a bump in his stock price. It's spread to Japan, too, where there's now a word - karoshi - meaning "death by overwork". And I bailed out of a job in IT because one of my co-workers died of a stress-induced heart attack and another had a nervous breakdown after being told to work 75 hours a week if he expected to keep his position.

What the cowboy capitalists forget is that historically every excess has been followed by a reaction, and the more they try to squeeze workers the worse the pushback will be. Just look at the health-care mess.....

[maul555]

How can you blame these suicides on an importation of the American work ethic when work related suicides in the US are lower than in France? Take your anti-Americanism elsewhere...

[ariess63]

We probably have more work related homicides.

[naida83]

I don't understand why people have commented that the persons that have committed suicide have the problem when comments from "tmittlestead" & "jejamesjr".I feel that these individuals are beyond cold hearted individuals that have no place in human society.People have to understand not everyone has the same feelings & emotions especially when it comes from diabolic mind manipulation harassment.I agree w/ "Dgunner".Because I am one of those people that have to put up w/ a boss that I consider Satans father.
That's how evil my boss is.And I have had to put up w/ his evil behavior for the past 6 years & still counting.
Until the economy gets better which of course I am waiting patiently & pursuing employment elsewhere.,unfortunately I & 7 other employees have to withstand Satans fathers abuse.
Maybe what would be good is that CBS NEWS do an indepth secret video taping of people like me that have to put up w/ this kind of abuse.And what rights do we have.Their should exist some kind of employee protection from the federal government from employees like me especially when we have fought hard to leave behind a very good employment background.Unfortunately the state of "FLORIDA" has NO employee protection rights.Bosses can & unfortunately abuse in every which way they can to "ALL" employees in this state & they get away w/ it.It makes you think why is it that this state permits you to carry a gun w/ permit in your glove compartment when you go to work or elsewhere.This is why I can understand & do feel remorse for those people who lost their lives all because of diabolic mind manipulation harassment @ the work place.When will it stop!

[Sloughfoot]

A more extreme freedom of expression is hard to imagine.