There has been a lot of speculation recently about the spate of suicides at France Telecom. The former state giant has been undergoing a transformation over the past ten years from a monopoly to a market-led business. Like all Telecoms businesses, it faces significant change. Users are switching from fixed lines to mobile technology, billing and pricing models are changing and competition is very stiff.

In terms of history and market pressure, there are strong parallels with the Royal Mail in the UK. A state owned business faces competition from private businesses and must transform itself quickly and under the control of a market regulator.

While staff at the Royal Mail are going on strike and complaining of intolerable stress, there have been a recent spate of suicides among workers at France Telecom. Of course I am not comparing the decision to go on strike and the decision to take your own life, but there are parallels between the situations that the employees find themselves in.

Some Anglo-Saxon commentators have sought explanations for this extreme reaction to change in national culture. They cite high power distances between workers and managers, rigid work structures based on tradition and protocol and a culture of not wanting to work (35 hour week). Having worked in a french company, I recognise some of these features, but some of them I do not. One description of a national culture is always to simple to be of practical use. Also the parallels with Royal Mail mean that culture is not going to be the only answer.

At the level of the individual, there seems to be a deep discontent in both businesses. People who joined FT, joined an organisation that offered a job for life in a business that was not market driven. They joined a company where doing things according to the procedures was at least as well rewarded as taking initiatives. Their social pact with the organisation was follow the protocol and we will give you a job for life.

Neither France Telecom nor Royal Mail can offer their part of this deal and so the workers feel frustrated. In fact there are almost no organisations that offer such employment terms these days outside of the civil service. The first step in bridging the chasm between what these employees expect and what former state companies can deliver is some honesty from the political class that opened the businesses to competition.

Until we hear Brown and Sarkozy tell the workers that at a global level that those days are gone, then disputes of this nature will simmer on for years as the managers in individual commercial businesses will never be able to fulfil employee expectations that were built up in state monopolies.

France Telecom suicide change management monopolies Royal Mail strikes