back to article Swisscom chief dead in apparent suicide

Swisscom has appointed an interim CEO, after announcing that 49-year-old Carsten Schloter was found dead in his flat in Fribourg on July 23. While a police investigation is ongoing, police has describing his death as “an apparent suicide”, according to Reuters. Urs Schaeppi has been appointed interim CEO. Prior to joining …

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  1. JaitcH
    Meh

    Always on culture

    Way back, in the days of pagers, you could turn them off or 'be out of range' and the calling party / boss wouldn't know. Now cell handsets can be traced and / or verified, and I don't mean by the NSA / FBI.

    As a manager I prevent any company related calls being forwarded to employee cell handsets. Our company has a 'managed' telephone system whereby all our calls are routed through call management system which re-directs calls to a pre-arranged plan. Since the company actually owns our cell handsets, which are also used as internal office intercoms, this is an easy policy to implement.

    Employees off-time should be sacrosanct, unless they receive remuneration for being available, and genuine freedom from employment activities benefits both the employer and employee. We didn't 24/7 communication in years past and 'pocket billiards' kept our hands busy.

    IMO, suicide is neither a solution for the actor nor friends / family and is a very selfish act.

    1. proto-robbie
      Holmes

      Re: Always on culture

      I just can't agree with the first part of your last line.

      It's definitely a solution for "the actor", decisive and positively final. Anyhow, the poor chap will not be minded to reconsider, despite your misgivings. Number unobtainable...

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Always on culture

      > Employees off-time should be sacrosanct

      I wish. Try to do that in SMBs with 24 x 7 infrastructure.

      > suicide ... a very selfish act.

      Does not compute. It may be an erroneous act, but it definitely is not "selfish" as no personal advantage accrues at all.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: Always on culture

        " Does not compute. It may be an erroneous act, but it definitely is not "selfish" as no personal advantage accrues at all. "

        Selfish isn't always about personal advantage, it's also acting for motives that only concern you, without regard for how those actions will affect friends, family, or anyone else.

      2. Charles Manning

        Re: Always on culture

        "Does not compute. It may be an erroneous act, but it definitely is not "selfish" as no personal advantage accrues at all."

        You do not have to actually gain an advantage to be selfish. Many non-selfish acts result in gain, and many selfish acts result in loss.

        Selfishness means you were motivated by an apparent personal advantage to be gained while disregarding the loss incurred by others. Big difference.

        Of course there is an apparent advantage to be gained here. The person was suffering some sort of anguish which he thought would be alleviated by ending his life,

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Destroy All Monsters

        "It may be an erroneous act, but it definitely is not "selfish" as no personal advantage accrues at all."

        Thanks for the philistine point of view! But since the "personal advantage" that accrues is non-material, it's only natural that you don't recognize it: the decedent is relieved of all stress and dissatisfactions and escapes them forever, while leaving a rich harvest of guilt and loss for the surviving family members, friends, workmates, and so forth.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Always on culture

        >> Employees off-time should be sacrosanct

        >I wish. Try to do that in SMBs with 24 x 7 infrastructure.

        Of course every person's work/life balance is different, but if I were expected to have to come in on my holidays/weekends for anything other than really simple "push the on button" or rare "it's on fire and needs fixing" then they'd soon have to find themselves a new server jockey.

    3. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: Always on culture

      It is far too early to know the real reasons for the suicide, I presume that within the next few weeks we will learn about some stealing, cheating, sordid affairs etc etc .that he was involved in......

      There have been a few high profile cases recently in Switzerland and I can't imagine that this will be any different.

      William Hill should start taking bets on the real reason, it would be far more interesting than taking bets over a baby's name.

    4. Turtle

      @JaitcH: Irony

      "In an interview Swiss publication Schweiz am Sonntag in May, Scholter had spoken of the stress induced by an 'always on' culture, reports The Independent."

      I too was struck by this line. And that he made his living by enabling this "always-on" culture makes his complaints and subsequent suicide very ironic.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Selfish???

      Speaking as a very selfish person who has attempted suicide on four seperate occasions, it was my very selfishness that saved me. Suicide is the ultimate sacrifice of self and so not something that selfish people are very good at.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    spelling

    Perhaps correct the spelling of the man's name... It's Schloter not Scholter

    1. hplasm
      Holmes

      Re: spelling

      Are you proposing this was his motive?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A bad day on the job

    Stress kills.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    honest CEO?

    The post is required, and must contain letters.

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