The newspaper are full about staff suicides at France Telecom. But is there really a crisis?
The BBC comes with some figures that put the drama in perspective. In 18 months 23 employees at the company committed suicide. That comes down to an average of 15.3 per year.
France Telecom employs 100,000 people. The French national suicide rate is 26.4 per 100,000 men, and 9.2 per 100,000 women, or 17.8 per 100,000 people regardless of sex.
Statistically, suicides at France Telecom are below the national average. The current rate is even dramatically lower than in the past. In the year 2000 there were 28 suicides in the company – and nobody wrote about it.
Every suicide is of course one too many. But I can’t help thinking that this story is being blown out of proportions.
It’s all a nasty plot to promote copy cat behaviour and get the staff numbers down.
And as it’s been the Union’s pushing this story most of all, they must be in on it too!
True.