Wave of Workplace Suicides. What's Happening?

What is sad to me is that the bank execs that screwed us over didn't have the same guts to toss themselves out the window.

There is no provision to prevent the personal destruction of lives, in these economic times.

Indeed, there is little or no regard for people, whatsoever.

One of the forgotten aspects of entrepreneurship, is that one of the goals of business, is to provide jobs and well being, for people. To do less, is short-sighted.

"A wave of employee suicides or attempted suicides continues to affect France Telecom SA." - ABC News

Maybe this is due to a wave of self realization from the employees that they are French and have to live in France.

: o )

They kill themselves because they believe they will lose everything they have. These are not people who have time to go home and kill themselves at home. They are doing it at work to make a statement to their employers and get attention. Not all who attempt suicide do it to kill themselves. Some don't really want to die, they just want the problem fixed.

23 suicides over 18 months is about 16 per year. That's 16 per 100,000 employees, which is lower than the national suicide rate of 17.1 per 100,000. So why the big deal about this particular telecom?

This from a country that has placed a monetary value on "happiness" and has the gall to add that value to their GDP that they post!

I used to work for a large telco and resigned before my stress-induced ailments killed me. I spoke with a coworker recently and all our peers are dead (age 50s) of cancer. Coincidence?
Corporations consume workers as management seeks their own success. Whether they work you to death or drive you to jump out a window - the result is the same.

The dangers of Socialism show themselves here. These people don't even realize that they have options. They've been trained to be taken care of by Big Daddy until they can see nothing else. Sad and also a warning to America to stop with this idiotic rush to leftist ideals.

How sad that workers in a society that led them to believe they would be taken care of feel they have no alternative other than suicide. I think the American worker is so much stronger and capable of weighing options. This is because we had HAD to be so.....no free lunch here.

"geographic mobility" ... sounds almost like chattel slavery to me! Sold "down-river" by her employer/"owner".

France Telecom SA may be a bit more than one-quarter government owned, but it sounds like it is operating like any big corporation: putting its workers into the corporate "blender" and expecting to pour them into molds of its choosing.

The company needs to be held responsible for laiding off so much people, knowing that this could possibly happen! If they are going to lay-off employees (especially during a severe recession), the company should pay each employee being laid-off a years salary to give them time to find a job in this recession. It would also help ease the burden on the fragile unemployment compensation. Companies that lay-off workers during a recession need to be held accountable.

Geeze I though us here at the Labor Dept had it rough. Oh well at leaast I have a job.

I used to make $60K, I now make $18K. I used to pay $1K rent I now pay $500.00 (not as good a neighborhood).
THIS IS IMPORTANT - family, friends - don't jump off the bridge! Go to family/friends. Change your life - make your lifestyle NOW fit your pocketbook. Find small treasures to cherish not material things - get a bike, ride it, have family singalong at home, games, poetry, art...you can survive...I am sad but I have to keep moving forward! You do too!

was wondering why this was news as well Jason. The death rate is lower than the average deaths so why are the making a big deal about it?

@SoSad - You're ABOVE ground! The only statement one makes from suicide is...I'm dead! No more income to be made. You can't get a raise or a new job if you're dead.

the suicide rate is below the national average but this one stands out because it's not a random sample of french people...it's kind of like a 'cancer cluster'...when a high number of people in a particular geograpic area get sick there is something wrong...it's not a representative sample

Oh Well!

Agreed with those who think this is a non-story: the suicide rate at the Telecom is the same as the French population overall - actually, one might expect it to be higher than reported at the Telecom given all the bad news being doled out. Why anyone would kill themselves over a job is beyond me.

Do the math. 17 average a year in France. 23 in 18 months at the company. they actually have a rate lower, yes LOWER than the national rate.

Besides suicides, heart attacks and other stress-induced problems should be monitored.

I worked in a school system in the USA where 33% of the 12 high schools' Athletic Directors had heart attacks in a decade up through the mid 2000s.

90% of teachers were I worked, including me, retired or quit this decade. Much was due to stress. The year after I quit teaching science, 2007, two of my fellow science teachers (out of 14) there had heart attacks and died.

The stress in the workplace is becoming 3rd-worldish.