'Management by terror' happens at France Telecom

A CULTURE of "management by terror" has been blamed for a spate of 23 suicides in the past two years at France Telecom, one of Europe's biggest telcos.

The problem has become so prominent that over the weekend the French Government stepped in to demand the company deal with its management culture.

In response, the company's chairman, Didier Lombard, pledged to bring a halt to what he called an "infernal spiral" of deaths.  

This week he outlined measures taken over the past months to prevent more staff from taking their own lives, such as setting up a distress line for depressed employees and offering more psychological counselling.

"We need to bring an end to this suicide trend that is shocking to everyone.... We must break this infernal spiral," Mr Lombard said at a joint news conference with French Labour Minister Xavier Darcos this week.

Mr Darcos added: "My concern is not to challenge the need for progress or technological change but this inevitable and necessary progress must occur with the greatest possible respect for employees."

The firm, which is 27 per cent state-owned, employs 100,000 people in France and 23 staff have killed themselves since February 2008.

In addition, labour unions say there have been another 13 attempted suicides at the company in this time.

France Telecom argues that the number of suicides is no higher than the national average, which according to the country's national health research agency was 16 deaths per 100,000 in 2006.

Unions are demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the rash of suicides, which they blame on stress linked to massive restructuring, involving forced transfers and the introduction of new profit targets.

Budget minister Eric Woerth said this week that France Telecom's management "must take very, very seriously this incredible string of suicides in one company".

In a joint statement, two major French workers' unions said: "The crisis at France Telecom is now a national problem. Full light must be shed on the causes of these tragedies and of the growing malaise within the company."

'Management by terror' at France Telecom: victim

On Monday, staff at a France Telecom customer service agency in the eastern city of Metz found a 53-year-old senior manager unconscious on the floor.

She had apparently taken an overdose of barbiturates after learning she was to be posted to another part of the country for the third time in a year, union official Pierre Dubois said.

She was taken to hospital but her condition was not life-threatening.

On Friday, a 32-year-old woman killed herself by leaping from the fifth-floor window of a France Telecom building in Paris. Two days earlier, a male worker stabbed himself in the stomach during a meeting.

"I was fed up," Yonnel Dervin, a 49-year-old technician, told AFP at his home in the town of Troyes where he was recovering after five days in hospital.

"I decided to do it just at the moment when they told me I was good for nothing.

"The night before, my manager had called me in his office to tell me that I no longer had the skills required for my job and that I had to change."

On 14 July, a 52-year-old employee killed himself in Marseille, leaving behind a note blaming "overwork" and "management by terror", The Guardian reports.

He wrote: "I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom. That's the only reason."

Mr Lombard said management was talking with union and personnel representatives on managing workplace stress.

He said all personnel transfers had been frozen until October 31 to "shelter those people" who may be psychologically fragile and upset by the changes. 

Source: Reuters

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