Twenty-four suicides. An article this week in the New York Times covering the suicide deaths of 24 France Télécom employees that occurred over the last year and a half stated that the number is not "extraordinary" for a company employing over 100,000 people in France.
But, 24 suicides still means 24 deaths, 24 individual lives lost. In addition, the New York Times article reported that there have been at least a dozen suicide attempts that were not completed.
These suicide attempts and deaths have reverberated internationally, impacting not only the company, but putting a focus on the workplace as contributing to suicide risk.
For France Télécom, crucial factors seem to be transitioning employees to the pressures of the global economy, as the company competes with other private companies providing similar services, and a lack of a supportive environment for employees experiencing work-related stress.
The descriptions of some of the deaths indicate that employees wanted to make sure the company knew that their deaths were connected to their experiences at work. Several employees attempted or completed suicide at the office, and many specified in notes to their families that the work atmosphere was to blame for their deaths.
I wanted to point to some resources that have been developed specifically for suicide prevention in the workplace.
First, the Air Force, which created an evidence-based program for workplace suicide prevention, has an online Leader's Guide to Managing Personnel in Distress, which can be adapted to individual workplace needs.
Value Options, a managed care company, references the Air Force program and walks through the process of creating a comprehensive workplace suicide prevention plan.
Finally, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, with which I work, has developed two customized information web pages for workplace suicide prevention, one for co-workers and one for employers.
If nothing else, the deaths of France Télécom employees have turned our attention to the importance of seeing employees as people, complex beings with complex needs, rather than cogs in the wheel of progress, industry, and finance.
Thanks to my friend Rabbi Joel Alter for bringing my attention to coverage of the France Télécom story.
Copyright 2009 Elana Premack Sandler, All Rights Reserved
