Staff suicides in France Telecom – workplace stress blamed

Thought it was just another day at work when I started my office routine by checking my email. My eyes caught this headline and an instant knot formed in my throat:

France Telecom No. 2 resigns over staff suicides. According to the article, France Telecom is a ” former state monopoly which employs 100,000 people in France and trades internationally as Orange, the telecoms giant has undergone major restructuring, which unions say have left workers stressed and demoralised.”

“The latest suicide was a 51-year-old father of two who jumped to his death from a highway overpass after leaving a note blaming pressures at work.”

” On September 15, 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. He survived.”

( Read the rest of the article here )

Is this not a warning bell to all company leaders to heed the emotional wellbeing of their employees? Above and beyond bad publicity, most companies it seems are merely paying lip service when they say they value their employees but when it comes to the nitty gritty of making sure they implement strategies that actually work ( let’s face it, millions of dollars are flushed down the toilet with workplace health initiatives that merely work on the superficial level. In this day and age, more needs to be done, and be done fast ).

I have been an advocate of workplace stress management for a while now, working with individual clients who come to me with various work-related emotional and psychological distress. With the economic reality as it is currently, a catalyst for a lot of corporate changes and retrenchment, mental health professionals such as myself see effective change management not only as a wise business decision but one that is of utmost, crucial importance.

Some of my clients acknowledge that their employers are trying, but many workplace wellbeing seminars they’ve attended are, to quote one of them ” a total waste of my day…”.

Company leaders who want to stay competitive when the economy starts its recovery need to make sure they put aside resources ( ie. budget ) for implementing techniques that are proven effective, and preferably something that puts control back into the hands of their valued people.

Through my experience helping my clients achieve emotional and psychological breakthroughs with their work-related issues, I would like to say this on their behalf:

I understand that in the day and age of do more with less, companies are cutting down on a lot of things. But the one thing you can’t cut down on is the inner and outer wellbeing of those you build your success upon. Your company’s survival is hingeing on this and compounded with economic uncertainty, this issue may well be as fragile as a house of cards.

Above all, be visionary. Seek methods that are more effective. Be open to solutions that appear to go against the grain but in actual fact makes a lot of sense.

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