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France Telecom sees 24th employee suicide
Employee morale at France Telecom took another hit yesterday as a 51-year-old worker committed suicide by jumping off a highway overpass during peak morning traffic. The employee, who worked at France Telecom's Annecy call center in the Eastern Haute-Savoie region, said in a suicide note the company's poor treatment of its staff prompted his decision to kill himself. This is the twenty-fourth suicide to happen at France Telecom in the past 18 months. Ongoing job cuts likely have contributed to the low employee morale and the raft of suicides. Between 2006 to 2008, France Telecom dismissed 22,000 employees.
Patrice Diochet, a local union leader, told the Agence France-Press that the worker who came over from an after-sales unit to the Annecy call center was apparently labeled as "emotionally fragile."
"It's shameful. He worked in a service long known to be unbearable," Diochet told Agence France-Press. "There was a real indifference, no humanity, all they talked about was numbers and workers were treated like sausage meat. We thought management would have learned a lesson."
For more:
- XChange via Associated Press has this article
Related article
France Telecom: labor minister to discuss employee suicides
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | February 2, 2010 - 6:32pm
We do have an aging and sedentary population in all office buildings. That could be a part of the explanation.
Posted by Anonymous | October 6, 2009 - 1:37am
It is always a tragedy when someone feels so hopeless that they feel there is only one solution to the problems they face. It is never the only, or best solution. It is unfortunate that even if there is help, that it is not reaching those that need it the most. I do not understand the individuals reasons for their desperate actions, but as a collective it is far more revealing. The loss of so many co-worker's employeement (22,000) could undermine the security of those more susceptible to the needs of stability and also to the empathy some people can not process without such personal,drastic means.
Comfort be with the families and loved ones of their losses.
Posted by Anonymous | October 1, 2009 - 1:19am
why dont you ask the AT&T CEO to resign, like french politics and unions?
Posted by Anonymous | September 30, 2009 - 10:20pm
AT&T employee here. In my building, this year, we've had an 7 ambulances called to our building to take employees to the hospital with chest pains, passing out due to high BP, etc. Did it change our mgnt - hell no, just turned them on more.
Posted by Anonymous | September 30, 2009 - 9:16pm
"We thought management would have learned a lesson.". In fact, in the french article it was written: " we had a meeting few weeks ago to talk about new organization, behavior, training,...we thought management would have learned a lesson"....no comment
Posted by KA | September 30, 2009 - 6:53pm
"It's shameful. He worked in a service long known to be unbearable," Diochet told Agence France-Press. "There was a real indifference, no humanity, all they talked about was numbers and workers were treated like sausage meat. We thought management would have learned a lesson."
There was a technician a few years ago who killed himself and sent along a detailed letter to the management at at&t describing how they were responsible. Were they? No, not directly, anyone who kills themselves has emotional problems. However, any company that micro manages it's employees, and makes middle management buy into "bottom 20% will be disciplined" mentality has a role in making a bad situation worse. We are numbers on a spreadsheet. The only difference between the current at&t and France's telecom is what is left of the crippled union. By the next contract, the union will have lost all or most of its power to keep the company from imposing mandatory overtime 27/7, endless "needs of the business" shifts and every other degrading and demoralizing practices. Then you will see two things happen. 1)The suicide rate will climb to match France, and 2) Union busting middle manatards will post here that the company isnt at fault, its the people, work ethic, sunspots...anything...
Read more: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/france-telecom-sees-24th-employee-suicide/2009-09-29#ixzz0SdICFrMG
Posted by Anonymous | September 30, 2009 - 6:18pm
I am not sure I understand why we talk about this. According to a lot of french websites, the suicide rate of France Telecom is identical to most of similar french companies. FT employees don't support the restructuration of the company but more important the transition from a "cool" company to a competitive one, results oriented.
Posted by Anonymous | September 30, 2009 - 6:06pm
is the level of employee suicide so high at AT&T?
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