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Job-related suicides in France


NormanH
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I have posted before on this rather grim topic, but a film has just come out highlighting one particular case, Jean-Michel Rieux who was employed by the Mairie de Béziers to work in the parks and gardens department.

His case was particularly sad because  he killed his wife and children before hanging himself in his cell

An account of his case and a trailer for the film can be found here:

http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/francoise-degert/311012/harcele-perdre-la-raison-ou-la-terrible-souffrance-du-jardinier

I don't know if it is the air of the South that pushes people to extremes but we have also had other serious cases of

workplace suicides in the same town.  A maths teacher who burned herself to death in the lycée courtyard in front of the students:

http://www.liberation.fr/societe/01012365448-un-enseignant-s-immole-par-le-feu-dans-la-cour-de-son-college

and CPAM worker who hanged himself in his office:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2012/03/01/dma-le-suicide-d-un-agent-de-la-cpam-sur-son-lieu-de-travail,464767.php

Seeing the trailer of that video brings it home to me, as these are places I pass or visit almost every day.

I have coached numerous students from that Lycée, and I have coffee regularly with colleagues of both the teacher and the Social security official.

His funeral was at 200 metres from my house and I saw the marche Blanche go past earlier and some of the mourners came into the café just after.

Perhaps this also happens  in the UK and elsewhere in France, but I do feel we have had more than our fair share of these tragedies.

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It is true that there are a lot of suicides in France and over the last few years, I have heard of a lot work related ones.

 Last night french news was talking about people addicted to sleeping tablets in France, only to be passed by Sweden. And they are legal, it isn't as if illegal drugs are not a problem in France too.

Which for me poses the question, why are so many people unhappy in the country which is for reasons beyond me, internationally known for it's relaxing life style. Incongruous? or perfect sense that I just don't get?

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In one of her classes at Lycee - Philosophy maybe ?? - my daughter was told that France Telecom/Orange have the highest number of suicides for any organisation in France.

Having phoned them a couple of times with problems, on my behalf, she can see why!

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That's extraordinary Sprogster. If you'd put 100 people up against a wall, I doubt that they'd have put Finland & France as the top two in such an awful statistic.

Norman ..............  as to why it seems to be particularly bad down here in the South, goodness only knows.

No answers, just sadness. 

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 I recall the France Telecom suicides which were the subject of a government investigation came about at a time of major change within the company.   That in my opinion could be the main cause .. The inability to accept and adapt to change in the workplace. The insecurity that may be felt by those who have been subjected to  workplace changes when they believed they were settled in the same job for life was something they could not face up to .

The UK workforce is more mobile and people now accept they  may not be in the same workplace all their working lives.    Something France has yet to come to grips with

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The house we bought when we came to France was being sold by a family where the father had killed himself (shot himself in the garden shed). This was allegedly over bad treatment (lack of recognition etc.) he had received in his job as a patissier in a local patisserie (which closed down shortly after). But I have always wondered whether it might not be, somehow, more acceptable (more legitimate even) to commit suicide for work-related reasons, rather than admit there were other problems of a more personal nature.

However bad are working conditions, I still have a feeling that it takes a certain kind of person or personality to go as far as taking your own life - is it part of the French psyche to let "work" affect the deepest parts of your being so that losing your job, or being treated shabbily at work, robs you  totally of your identity? Does the meaning of life depend so entirely on "work" for some people?

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Whilst painting today with my thoughts miles away I was thinking that actually not so much work related suicides but just plain suicides. There have been three round here, like within 1km, in the last 18 months. Two shot themselves and the other hung himself, all were men, older and not working. Don't know the reason why, except for one who had recently lost his wife. There was nothing in the local paper about them either and I wondered why? I did wonder if, as most here are catholics (suicide is a mortal sin apparently), that it was turning a 'blind eye' so they could be buried in the cemetery along with their already deceased family? If it were not mentioned in the newspaper nobody would know sort of thing?

Anyway the point is that I have known more people who have committed suicide locally in France than I ever did in the UK and none of them were work related.

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