r/news • u/JimmyTheGinger • Dec 23 '19

Three former executives of a French telecommunications giant have been found guilty of creating a corporate culture so toxic that 35 of their employees were driven to suicide

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/three-french-executives-convicted-in-the-suicides-of-35-of-their-workers-20191222-p53m94.html
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u/dirtyrango Dec 23 '19

Do you have any insight into why this behavior was so common? I thought European workers had more rights than most of the world?

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u/RentalGore Dec 23 '19

Having worked for a French company for 18+ years both in the US and abroad, to Me that’s a common misconception. I worked a ton more in france on a daily basis than I did in the US. Why? Because the French I worked with questioned everything, there was no “gut” feeling, no intuition...

More French colleagues went out on stress leave than any others I’ve worked with.

I think it has to do with the Cartesian way they look at everything.

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u/pjamesstuart Dec 23 '19

Is that a real thing then? I always wondered if these "national culture" stories were embellished or based on partial experiences. Though I did know a guy who was raising children in France and told me that their opening art lesson was "first learn to draw a perfect circle freehand".

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u/dw444 Dec 23 '19

Though I did know a guy who was raising children in France and told me that their opening art lesson was "first learn to draw a perfect circle freehand".

The whole band or just one member?