Employee suicides go up as economic crisis hits firms

• Death cases force France Telecom to suspend its restructuring plan

Welcome back after the short commercial break.

We resume with a follow-up on a story this column featured about a month ago, on the rather sad spate of suicides at France Telecom, the global telecoms giant.

With 25 of the company’s employees having committed suicide within the last two years, France Telecom had been asked to explain why its workers suicide rate was, on average, higher than that of the United States of America.

Stressed staff

While initial reports indicated that the problem could be linked to over-stressed employees who were over-burdened by work woes, it now appears that France Telecom has become the unlikely theatre where the effects of global downturn are being played out.

The company has recently been forced to suspend its restructuring programme which was aimed at leaving the organisation a leaner and better equipped operation to face the challenges of operating in a depressed market.

The company’s second in command tendered his resignation as an attempt to curb growing unrest amongst employees and unions and to stave off what has been a continuing spate of suicides.

A man leapt to his death from a bridge in the latest suicide attempt just under a month ago.

Soon after, a gathering of the company’s employees took to the streets to protest what they termed unreasonable action by management.

In response, the company said it would suspend 500 pending job transfers, open an emergency hotline for its employees and establish staff counselling services.

What’s to blame?

Most fingers are pointing at the decision by the company to restructure its operations but analysts say the problems being faced by France Telecom may be an extreme example of how the economic crisis is affecting business and that it contains lessons for other business as they go through similar processes.

France Telecom was undergoing a major strategic change with the goal of cutting $2.3 billion in expenses.

The company has laid off over 20,000 employees in the last two years, and has transferred a similar number to new postings.

It has also changed its business from being a telephony operator to a data and mobile firm, causing ripples of change that have seen many older employees shown the door.