Stefan Ulrich on reactions to the France Télécom suicides

The company France Télécom has conducted a survey of 100,000 employees on job-related risks, after 33 workers committed suicide within just two years. Stefan Ulrich writes in the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that all of France is caught up by the issues at stake : "Like Télécom, France itself is changing rapidly. In former times people between the Atlantic and the Rhine lived in a very French sort of capitalism. ... Today they are faced with the fact that this system no longer works. ... It is remarkable how the French are dealing with these changes. Far from averting its eyes and muddling along, the nation is on a quest for self-knowledge. If God still lives in France, he's no longer enjoying the same savoir-vivre. He has become more reflective, more contemplative. France Télécom's employee survey is symptomatic. All of France is thinking about how work environments may be rendered more humane despite globalisation. Right up to the president, everyone is asking if not only growth, but also the happiness of each and every individual should define a country's economic performance."

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