Ex-France Telecom CEO probed over staff suicide spate

Re: So this is the man responsible...

You clearly have not worked in a T company where T is part of a 2-3 letter abbreviation.

The only thing that can compare to a lot (not all) of these is the Soviet Union during Brezhnev's time especially if you happen to be non-unionized non-field staff.

I suggest you work in one for a few years as non-unionized white collar non-management staff to experience first hand. Nuff said. Me coat.

Anonymous on purpose (I used to work for one so I know first hand what do you get on the receiving side).

Re: "imposed on people who used to be civil servants"

" many of whom had "protected employment" status, presumably making it difficult to fire the"

You have no idea! "civil servant" is a poor translation of "fonctionnaire", which is a status that most of France aspires to. It gives you a job for life; about the only way to get rid of a fonctionnaire is to catch him or (rarely) her in some major corporate malfeasance. Even laying a fonctionnaire off is well-nigh impossible, short of having the whole company go bankrupt (and even then they may still get years of pay from the taxpayer).

The accusations against FT are that, unable to fire these people, they tried to make their daily work so pointless that they would quit voluntarily. Some couldn't cope with getting paid to do nothing in some French equivalent to Peoria (or Basingstoke).

The solution, which is entirely unthinkable to a French government, is to reform the employment laws, not to persecute the poor sods who have to work within them.

Re: Fonctionnaires...

BS and rightist propaganda - I know many people in the private sector who don't make half the job of a civil servant. It isn't a matter of public or private, it's a matter of size (as often) - The bigger the organization, the bigger the number of slackers in it.