France Telecom Suicides- Lost Identities

There has been a rash of 24 suicides and 13 suicide attempts in the France Telecom workforce since February 2008. France Telecom has become the 3rd largest phone company in Europe. Most all of the suicides and suicide attempts have been blamed on the restructuring efforts that have been underway since an economic downturn was starting to hit globally in the beginning of 2006. The company once owned completely by the the state of France (France still owns the majority with abt. 27% of shares) privatized back in 1997 but the job restructuring and reshuffling didn’t start taking dramatic shifts until the 2006-2008 timeline. The company laid off some 22,000 people between 2006 and 2008, and has taken reassigned and relocated 1000’s of others.

One of the attempted suicide victims whom stabbed himself in the stomach during a meeting. A meeting where he was advised that he would be moving positions.

"I was fed up," Yonnel Dervin, a 49-year-old technician, said from 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."

Many more cited these types of reorganizations as the sole reason for ending their lives.

A 32 year old woman flung herself out of  4th floor office window after work one night back in September. Moments before she had sent the following email to her father.

“I’m going to become the 23rd staff member to commit suicide,”

“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.”

"I can’t accept the new reorganisation in my department. I’m getting a new boss and I’d rather die. I’m leaving my handbag with my mobiles and keys in the office, but I’ll take my donor card with me, you never know," she wrote.

The most recent suicide occurred Sept 21st  when a 51-year-old man jumped from a highway bridge in the French Alps. The employee, who was married with two children, left a note blaming the work atmosphere for his decision to end his life.

Eight suicides have taken place since the beginning of the summer alone. One man was found in his apartment, another hung himself in his office cubicle.Again both citing working conditions at Telecom for the reason of their suicides.

It is said that France has a suicide rate 50% higher than the U.S which after reading several articles on the subject seems to be what the company is standing by a national average of 26.4 a year for every 100,000 men and 9.2 per for every 100,000 women. Based on those figures, the company argues that the number of suicides within the ranks of France Telecom  is below the national average. But the problem really isn’t based on a practicality of figures, the problem is that all of these people are directly implicating Telecoms management for their sudden loss of a will to live.

As recently as today the former chief exec Louis- Pierre Wenes resigned after labor organizations had been demanding his resignation since last week . In September after the last round of suicides there were some attempts(albeit the State was mandating something be done) to quarantine the suicide hysteria. CEO Didier Lombard implemented a plan to monitor and counsel staff thought to be suicidal, and temporarily froze 500 employee transfers that were part of the restructuring plans. That freeze was today extended until the end of the year. Didier Lombard himself was caught in some very controversial statements in regards to the suicide epidemic. The website Mediapart released a video showing Lombard telling a management meeting this year that "those who think they can just stick to their routine and not worry about a thing are sorely mistaken".He went on to suggest that staff outside Paris spent their time at the beach, fishing for mussels, adding those days were "over". France Telecom brushed off Lombard’s comments as a joke between colleagues. With the company adamant that its restructuring must continue if it is to compete with European rivals. There was even a supposed misquote from Mr Lombard, FT’s CEO,  suggesting the suicides a “mode” which translates to “fashion”. He then reversed his statement saying he had meant to say “mood”, before saying he had meant to say ‘mood’, which from what I can find means the same in English and French.

Furthermore my thoughts are its not that these people didnt want to work, or work at that job in which they had become accustomed, they were being told they could not work  in their positions. Shuffling engineers into sales , demoting 20yr in managers to clerks who were forced to train their replacements. The work/life culture there is so different from what we know in America. (dont know from personal experience just reading into it I suppose) Most of these people were grandfathered in as  public servants after the State allowed the privatization, which entitles them to that job for life.So your 50 years old working at the same place for 25 years, things were probably about the same for the first 20 and then BOOM technology changes, management changes,expectations change. Everything you have ever known to count on has been ripped away from you its a pretty hard pill to swallow. People are not as willing and possibly not even capable of accepting this long line of changes. Management then takes on a role where they need to force feed rhetoric which they themselves might not even deem fair but in order to appease the powers above you need to control the strings to those below. My research has led me down a path that possibly points out that the State themselves could have a hand in pushing for extreme profitability in order to decrease budget woes…and as the companies biggest shareholder it seems possible. Wouldnt that be an interesting spin on events? I can see the headlines – French State Ultimately Responsible for Telcom Suicides- or something like that.. Not that I think anyone would want to impose standards and practices that would knowingly drive someone or a group of people for that matter into a suicide frenzy, but unknowingly..sure. Greed can cast iron blinders over your eyes if you let it. Americans haven’t had job security since the 70’s as a culture we are used to thinking..oh well find something else. For them its an identity crisis. Its bringing the already unstable to a place where they cant see themselves living another day without that identity defining them.

I have linked to a video below that goes into everything a bit more and is sure to hit some points I haven’t made here. Its really just a tragic macabre story, the kind of story the human condition is irrefutably drawn to. I know I set my google alerts.

**I would  like to apologize for not sourcing this right- I closed out of my pages before grabbing the appropriate URLS for the excerpts that I copied directly. Mostly I just used the info and put it into my words. I fished these site pages out of my history and for whatever it is worth these articles were either sourced directly or used for research.

Other sources:

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,26086028-5012426,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113352329

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/05/telecoms-france

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aBXIxDnDX8aY

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601090&sid=aUr.vDtagnng

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Olive Kitteridge : a Novel by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge…self righteous, passionate, and without regret, a character that we can all share a piece of. The way this novel is shaped out pushes you into these characters sometimes deeper than you would like to go. I felt such sympathy and admiration for many of these otherwise nameless faces. One of the excerpts of the story that really spoke to me was a beautifully written passage internalized by one of the characters whom had been brought back to his childhood home by certain remembrances.

” What he began to want was to see his childhood house— a house he believed, even as he sat in his car now, that he had never once been happy in . And yet, oddly, the fact of its unhappiness seemed to have a hold on him with the sweetness of a remembered love affair. For Kevin had some memories of sweet brief love affairs. None measured up to the inner desire, the longing he felt for that place…”

In those few words spoken in Kevin’s narrative I knew him. I identified but more than that I committed those words to my own experience and that’s what drew me in.

For me it was the identity of all of these characters in Elizabeth Strout’s novel that kept me involved. The integrity held by these bystanders of life. The genuine existence that hangs at the end of each one of our ropes.

Pediatrics is a joke

My kid had been sick since 2 Saturdays ago. First it started with a cough then the lovely green phlegm etc. She only had a fever for 1 day but a vicious cough on Monday and Tuesday so I kept her home. When Tuesday night rolls around and she’s still no better I call the docs and make an appointment for the next morning. So at this point I’m thinking green phlegm, cough ok she’s got an upper respiratory thing going on. We go see Dr. Mike not our beloved Dr. Mike but this other joker trying to pose as Dr. Mike.

He does all the tapping and tugging and breathing and budging and comes up with…she has a wheeze and needs Albuterol treatments. Not that she has asthma or bronchitis just a wheeze and if she starts the treatments tonight she can go back to school tomorrow. I wasn’t too keen on this analysis especially when he tells me that the color of the snot has nothing to do with if there is an infection. Oh ok because for 50 +years it has but I guess your bs study knows better guy.

Top 10 Reasons Why:: Olive Garden Annoys Me

10.	They give you one of those laser light disco party Frisbees when your on deck for seating.
9.	The hostess and her random waitress friends look at you like you have 3 heads when your disco Frisbee is clearly re-enacting the Pink Floyd laser light show.
8.	They corner the market on plastic grapes. If Grandma needs a bunch of red seedless to complete her collection she’ll have to take it up with Mr. Olive
7.	Just bring the breadsticks already
6.	Last time I looked the  Olive Garden wasn’t on the cover of  Food and Wine so calm the hell down with the wine list. Can you recommend something for my wife and I we are having the “ Rubbery Pasta , Topped with the microwaved Marinara, and a side of Blue Veined Dog Food Chicken.
5.	Olive Garden apparently has an employee no tolerance policy when it comes to eating breadsticks. My sisters friend apparently got fired for eating a breadstick on duty. Well that and she forgot to wear her I “heart” Mussolini pin.
4.	With the breadsticks already Doris.
3.	One of the Childrens Menu characters is called Benny the Breadstick, he has a mustache and an attitude.
2.	The commercials remind me of aged drama geeks from high school that get together once a week to talk about the good times over some never ending pasta bowls. and they didn’t invite me.
1.	Unknowingly everyone in the place seems to think they are at some sort of Tuscan food tasting with Mario Batali and Gwnyth Paltrow, not in a mini mall outside of the AMC 12.

Circus McGurkus property of Cole Bros.

Took the girlies to the circus yesterday. Cole Bros Circus the oldest Big Top Circus still running and now I know why. This supposed free ticket trip ended up costing me over a hundred bucks. Now don’t get me wrong I know how expensive it has to be to run a Circus especially a traveling tent circus, and I have the utmost respect for all Circus/Carney folk. I admire the dedication to their craft and the incredibly strenuous schedule they keep. But….in these current economic times..cough cough… I cant help but feel that if Pee Wee had given up the mini hot dog tree biz and stuck with the circus gig he would have been summering in Miami and wintering in Malibu.
We had some coupons that were good for 1 free child admission with a paying adult. The adult tix were 17 bucks a piece but on the coup there was 5$ off that too. So I’m figuring ok.. Ill ask my Dad and sis if they want to go to and well make a night of it. So we get there about 45mins ahead of time and I jump into line with the help of a clown of short stature(Clown Midget). After 15 mins its my turn I toss my coup’s up and say 3 adults and the 2 kids should be free. Then the tiger woman behind the cage ticketing booth tells me “All we have left are V.I.P seats and Reserved Seats” ok so reserved is 3 bucks more so I go for that. 51 bucks done. Ok so I’m still thinking were within range here. Hell we got reserved seats that’s gotta be something right… I mean we should be able to see up the tight rope girls skirt  for reserved seating.

My Dad runs over and says he put Elle and Jane on the Elephant ride.  Ok… now I know the circus has Elephants and Lions and other such creatures that shouldn’t be spending their lives wandering around a tiny dirt ring working for ”peanuts”(sorry I had to), and I’m a total hypocrite here but when you have kids..and those kids wanna  touch an elephant…and their lil smiles are so urgent and needy you somehow find a way around your conscious. I mean honestly if I was that concerned I wouldn’t have come to the circus in the first place and if Babar can escape from the circus so could these guys.(Yes I have already come to terms with the fact that I’m going to hell) So here they go, one time around a mud path with a square footage of no more that 60 ft on the back of this poor drugged elephant……. they had the time of their lives. 24 more bucks spent on a straight injection of Elephant Morphine.

Now were perusing the local wares. The Glow Necklaces and inflatable Dora dolls so Ellie spies this Butterfly light up wand. “How Much for The Butterfly Wand?” I say to the shopkeep. “ !5” What What What…Did I eat a bowl of Triples this morning or did this lady really say 15 bucks for the Butterfly Wand that will certainly be thrown in the trash in a week. Yes 15 Dollars was the going price and I got going right on out of there. Explained to Elle those Butterfly Wands were broken and we couldnt buy them today.

Into the BIg Top we go after dropping another 12 bucks on a water, soda and a popcorn. The reserved seats that I thought were going to be up a zebras butt….NO NO NO silly Char, the seats were in damned New Zealand while the Circus was happening in the good ol’ US of A. We could hardly see the ring….besides the fact when we came to sit down there was an audible grimace from the family behind us. Now  I’m starting to feel like ok I better see some death defying feats or Im kicking one of these tent poles out on my way down the midway. But the feats were spectacular. To Quote my fave Dr. Seuss the Cole Bros circus was Colossal Stupendous Fantastic Outrageous Terrific Tremendous. There was a motorcycle sphere thingey with 2 guys doing loopdey loops and 11 guys from Malaysia that balanced chairs and their brethren on their chins.  So the acts were good the girls loved it.

Then the inevitable happened the girls had to go to the bathroom. So we mozied on down to the port a potty pavilion where we straddled and hovered and probably produced acts so skillfully executed they could have been part of the circus itself. The kicker of the whole thing was that you had to pay a dollar to wash your hands. The water was free but the pump of hand soap they were offering cost 1.00!!!! Ughhh no wonder they had someone foreign running the hand washing gig…so he wouldn’t understand the slew of profanities being slung at him for slutting out softsoap. ( Say that 5 times fast)

In the end the girls got their 12 dollar swords and were happy to have seen all of the crazy circus nonsense. And while my children dream of the wonderment behind the giant yellow tents Cole Bros will be cashing in on  the next town of sucker parents who will spend 100 bucks on a 3 minute elephant ride, some popcorn, a smidgen of soap, a cheap ass light up sword and a 2 hour non stop thrill fest.