Did smartphones spark France Telecom suicides?
p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- People are killing themselves “in the age of the BlackBerry,” Canada’s ubiquitous handheld, originally introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager but now the principal source of communication for millions of people around the world
A mind-boggling string of suicides at France Telecom is being blamed on a, “barrage of emails from smartphones and personal computers” which are “stressing out employees,” says The Age, attributing the Blackberry comment to France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier.
“France Telecom, which operates under the Orange brand, has come under public scrutiny after 22 workers committed suicide and another 13 attempted to kill themselves since the start of last year,” says the story, noting CEO Didier Lombard said the company was, “adding surveillance and counselling services as the pace of suicides among employees had picked up”.
The company argues the number is no higher than the national average, but trades unions are demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the deaths, “which they blame on stress linked to massive restructuring at the company, involving forced transfers and the introduction of new profit targets,” says the story, continuing »»»
Pellissier said some employees were clearly feeling a lot of pressure due to the privatisation of France Telecom, but he added that this was compounded by new technologies that cause work to encroach increasingly on personal lives.
“When you were an average employee in a big corporation 15 years ago, you had no mobile phone or no PC at home. When you were back home, work was out,” he said.
Research in Motion’s popular BlackBerry has been dubbed CrackBerry in the United States, where some users say they are addicted to checking emails.
Pellissier said such practices may be taking a bigger toll on workers than has been acknowledged by his company or others.
The French Government stepped in last weekend to press France Telecom to deal with the issue, “But union groups have called for greater scrutiny of the company,” says The Age, adding:
“The controversy over the spate of suicides took a macabre turn last week with the publication of a suicide letter sent by the latest employee to die.
“I’m going to become the 23rd staff member to commit suicide,” 32-year-old Stephanie emailed her father moments before she flung herself out of her fourth storey office window, says the post.
“When I called you this morning, you said I didn’t seem quite right,” said, according to the story. “You were right. My suicidal impulses are taking over again. I’ve decided to act upon them tonight.”
Minutes later, “Stephanie dropped from her office window in a French Telecom client services office in Paris.”
The Age – Boss blames smartphones for stress as company suicide rate comes under scrutiny, September 25, 2009
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September 26th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
MEMORANDUM
ATTENTION: France Telecom Employees
Life is simple – read below.
You don’t like it – quit your job and get another one. Take a vacation. Create a union. Go back to school. Go on stress leave. Take sick days.
Management is being arseholes? Well, you rant, scream and punch their lights out before you throw yourself out the window. You stab one of them and not yourself. Really, don’t stab anyone. If you stab someone, even yourself, you’re batshit crazy to begin with. Period.
Technology’s a problem? There’s this new feature on these things I call the ‘OFF’ button.
Problem(s) solved. Grow a pair. Quit wallowing in self-pity. Grow up. Think for yourself. Live for yourself, not for work. These people all need a smack upside the head.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Me personally think they did because the only music they were allowed to listen to while working was Carla Bruni’s…
September 26th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
The French Telecom (ex government operated PTT) employees are umfirable by statute. So what do they do when they want to trim?
They harass the employee they target to make them resign! This is why there are so many suicides.
Nice hum? Immoral and probably illegal even in France.
For those who say just resign you must know than in France it is extremely hard to find a job once you have lost yours. If you are in your 40-50s it is actually impossible!
ADVICE TO THE FRENCH TELECOM EMPLOYEES.
If you are a French Telecom employee and if they harass you, do not kill yourself and do not resign! Please! That will be a victory for them! They want you to do one of these!
IDENTIFYING THE TARGETS
Identify the enemies, those who are responsible for your harassment by investigating who is ordering this or that and who is saying this or that about you. Be careful there because hitting the wrong person will back fire. Do not just carpet bomb the place. You need specific objectives that you are sure about and as high as possible in the hierarchy. Those who are actually conducting the harassment are easy to identify and good targets but the most valuable targets are higher in the hierarchy particularly once they understand that you know where your trouble is coming from.)
ATTACKING THE TARGETS.
Harass them back! Make it a game. Now this is your job. War is a job. In a war you have to ever kill the will of the enemy or kill the enemy itself.
Talk nasty against them. Scold them daily. Spread rumors against them. Accuse them for their behavior every day.
Complain to your close colleagues and friends. Expose the facts of your harassment publicly.
Let them believe that one day, may be, one day you might kill them unless they stop, without saying it or threatening them of course. Just insinuate to their subconscious so that they always wonder if it is what you might mean.
If they ask you specifically deny that this is what you mean but always leaves some ambiguity behind. The French language is great for that.
Make them fear you daily so it becomes painful to harass you. If they stop harassing you, then stop harassing them immediately. Resume as soon as they resume their harassment.
After few months of these I guaranty you that they will switch target.
FOLLOW UP
Identify other victims. Assist them using the experience you just acquired. Build a network of victims and bind together. Remember that some executives will be also the victim of harassment. Once the network is big enough you might be able to take other the entire company and get ride of the harassers!
September 26th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
“They harass the employee they target to make them resign! This is why there are so many suicides.”
This is indeed what has been said.
September 26th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
This is ridiculous. There are many other options for them than committing suicide. If you (and your family) have to move to another town, city or country to work and be happy then you do it, you do what you have to do. It’s called self-preservation.
The management might be pulling some downright immoral and disturbing things to try and get rid of employees but it’s just a job. If you don’t like it, you organize and go after the people who are responsible. You don’t kill yourself over a job. You don’t kill them over your job either.
Really, these France Telecom jobs cannot be so bloody great they’re worth losing a person’s life over? These jobs are paying a million Euros a year to every employee then are they? Even that amount isn’t worth taking your life.
Of course all of the employees saved some of their money, invested it and can live relatively stress free for months while searching for another job right? That’s what a rsponsible adult does.
I have no sympathy for these people.
September 26th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“if you are in your 40-50s it is actually impossible!”
This statement is just not true, I’ve lived and worked in France and I’m in that age range.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I’d like to point out that from the stats I can find, Canadian unemployment is higher than France’s.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:50 am
+1 for the “OFF” button. Its there to KILL the connections. YOU are in control (unless you use an iPhone which has NO VISIBLE power button). My phone is OFF when I sleep, and offline when i don’t want to be disturbed so anyone saying phones invade their lives is talking c***.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
“You don’t kill them over your job either.”
May be they should and may be they will eventually. Remember the saying, no justice no peace?
And it is not just a job. it suppose to be your life and without it you are in the street.
The alternative to a job is to attack people banks institutions, and government facilities.
People spend a great deal of time at work.
Moving to another country? may be but why should they? It is their country after all!
Capitalism is going to far and as to be tempered or it will collapse.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
This statement is just not true, I’ve lived and worked in France and I’m in that age range.
Good for you but. . .
September 27th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
“if you are in your 40-50s it is actually impossible!”
This statement is just not true, I’ve lived and worked in France and I’m in that age range.
Yes this statement is sadly and unfortunately true. You can call this age discrimination.
You say lived. Try to go back!
September 27th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
“I’d like to point out that from the stats I can find, Canadian unemployment is higher than France’s.”
Yes. Stat are manipulated to a great deal by the French government.
Always trying to make you believe that things are a lot worst elswhere.
The unemployment is currently rising rapidly in France.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
A job or a career is not the sum total of who a person is, if it is that’s so very sad. A job loss sucks, and getting forced out of one is worse, don’t get me wrong but if a person loses their job and gets kicked out onto the streets then it’s a total lack of preparedness. Like someone else said, where’s their savings, investments??? Is this a cultural thing I don’t understand? Job=life in France?
We’ve seen in the world recently what happens when people spend all the money they have + more that they don’t have, expect more and if the cash cow dies then there’s only a single option? NOT. Your manager plays games, stresses you out and tries to get you to quit, there’s only a single option? NOT. If this was the way then there would have been mass suicides in the USA due to their financial crisis, one that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. People borrowing what they can’t possibly pay back and banks preying on their own customers, nobody saving any money, looking for handouts then not having the brains to break the cycle. Sickens me.
This is what’s wrong with things today. Self-entitlement, not taking responsibility for one’s self and a total lack of common sense. Yes, in this case they are entitled to their jobs, for sure, and by law they are entitled to their jobs, still not worth killing yourself over. No offense to the families of the people who have died over this but come on, you fight back. It seems like some of the employees may have had pre-existing mental troubles. Why is it today when people face a little bit or some adversity they completely fall apart? I’d also like to know in detail what kind of pressure and tactics the Telecom management used to push these employees over the edge. I haven’t read anything about the specifics.
When people get overwhelmed by the situation and/or the technology they should take a step back and evaluate what’s really important to them. If the job and gadgets mean that much to you then you’re insane.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Any wrongdoing at France Telecom or elsewhere should be reported to Wikileaks, the “most important website on the Internet” (as Reddit put it).
Head over to https://secure.wikileaks.org/ and submit your leak, if you think public should know something about the company.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
“When people get overwhelmed by the situation and/or the technology they should take a step back and evaluate what’s really important to them.”
There we go again! Blaming the victims! This is not the “situation” or the “technology”. This is a group of individual conducting themselves like criminal and who have to be stopped for the sake of the society.
And as far as reacting to the situation it is always easy to tell somebody you should have done this or you should have done that after the fact once they are in trouble. They don’t need you for that. Deu!
The bottom line is that these type of corporate behavior is wrong immoral and unacceptable. This underline what is wrong with a capitalism going too far. It is not the capitalism that is bad. It is the people who run it.