I am glad that you’re talking about the serious issues of job related depression and I thought I might add some additional insight into the France telecom/French employment issues to enhance your article.

As a resident in France and coach for clientele in Europe and U.S.A. , I can tell you that France telecom is a seriously inefficient company with operations problems. It takes weeks upon weeks to do a simple internet/cable connect and customer service is very weak and inefficient. This type of inefficiency isn’t limited to the French culture itself; this is a universal problem.

Economically and culturally, most French people are unemployed on average of 18-24 months. Yes, that’s up to two years without employment. I can safely assume that these employees may get social aid from the French government in the event of quitting their job, but they must prove a lot of things and can easily be denied aid on the whim of a government worker. If you do qualify for help, it can take around 6 months to get the paperwork processed (if somebody doesn’t lose your file) and a check in your bank account.

The hiring processes in France are very strict with rigorous psychological exams (for those in mid and upper level management); a client of mine took 5 hours of exams in one session. The country still analyzes handwriting! Employment taxes are very high, adding to the additional hesitancy of hiring new employees. A friend of mine is an attorney for major companies in France (like FNAC) and she reported the frustrations with strict hiring laws and the social/job security issues alive today.

In essence, the organizational problems coupled with social/economic quandaries have a huge impact on depression and the ability for employees to respond such difficulties. People in France are talking about this, but the problem is much deeper and will hopefully reach a resolution as the French business culture is evolving with greater international connectivity.

Thanks for allowing my thoughts.
-Leslie Juvin

In a “civilization”, a “society”, worldly posessions are the “quicksand”. If you want to get out of danger, let go of them. Simple, yes? Only a child can see that. The more we grow the more we lose that discernability. Stay young at heart, said so many time, but so true.

Put in zen terms, let go of all worldly attachments and you’ll be free and happy. Give to the needier. There will always be one needier than you.

As someone who has suffered from depression myself many years ago, I certainly do not trivialise it – the whole point of this post is I think it’s a serious issue. Your view I take from your reply is that other people should have helped them or at least not failed them – employers, the unions. In my view, relying on other people/the world to make things better is one of the things that keeps people depressed/in a cycle of despair. For huge areas of industry over the past 30 years in Western Europe and the US, such a strategy would have been suicidal as swathes of industry were mothballed and jobs sent overseas. Relying on unions/employers would have ended in misery – and indeed you see that in many former industrial communities in the UK and I suspect the US.

Finally, the issue isn’t what they did, for whom it is clearly too late. The issue is what we/readers do, and what they’re attitude is. If this post makes people less reliant on the whims of an employer, and more able to derive their strength of self from within themselves, then I’m content it’s done it’s a positive contribution.

Even then I do a blog called Monevator so I can’t really complain about the urge to maximise earnings — but I’d (a) urge such people to buy future investment income with most of it (not ‘stuff’) and (b) remember they are, in the politest way possible and compatible with living in a decent society, in it for themselves, not for their employer.

Creating an expensive lifestyle full of obligations that you can only finance with a high paying job you don’t like that exists on the whim of an employer = disaster.

I just say to myself, why, why, why?

Life is about so much more than work. Sure, we should take pride in our jobs and do good work, but at the end of the day we work to put food on the table and allow ourselves to do the OTHER things we want to do with life.

The sooner people get this, the happier they’ll be!

I wonder if any of the deaths were connected. Maybe they all work for the same company and if so, someone should probably look into this a bit more

Thank you.