A disturbing report - France Telecom and former CEO stand trial for 'harassment' after 35 employees commit suicide.

France Telecom and its former CEO stood trial on Monday accused of creating a system of workplace harassment in a brutal bid to downsize, which prosecutors say triggered a wave of 35 suicides in less than two years.

In the first such case of its case for a company this big, France Telecom, since renamed Orange, its ex-boss Didier Lombard, and six former colleagues face charges of “moral harassment” for enforcing a “corporate policy aimed at destabilising their employees and agents by creating a stressful professional climate”.

Continue Reading @ the Daily Telegraph.

35 Employees Commit Suicide

A disturbing report - France Telecom and former CEO stand trial for 'harassment' after 35 employees commit suicide.

France Telecom and its former CEO stood trial on Monday accused of creating a system of workplace harassment in a brutal bid to downsize, which prosecutors say triggered a wave of 35 suicides in less than two years.

In the first such case of its case for a company this big, France Telecom, since renamed Orange, its ex-boss Didier Lombard, and six former colleagues face charges of “moral harassment” for enforcing a “corporate policy aimed at destabilising their employees and agents by creating a stressful professional climate”.

Continue Reading @ the Daily Telegraph.

3 comments:

  1. “The aim, said prosecutors, was to demoralise staff in any way they saw fit in order to get them to throw in the towel. This could be sending them to far-flung places away from their families, obliging a mother to travel two hours to work each day, or "forgetting" staff during an office move leaving them in the former premises for weeks without an office, desk or chair and far from ex-colleagues. ”

    The part about leaving them in ‘former premises after an office move’ bit made me tear up a bit. They should of taken 35 managers with them on their exit.

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  2. Not the sort of story makes it to the surface every day

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  3. AM, it’s given my pause to consider my own behaviour to coworkers. I tend to avoid (in reality, conspire against) those i deem lazy. I figured I can do my job despite many self imposed hurdles (ahem) they should too. Some are just arseholes, but it would be self serving to think all I’ve treated that way were. I think that’s why the being made to feel redundant part resonated with me, I’ve definitely made people feel that way.

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