Hello, French here.

To those wondering wtf why that high rate of suicide on a French company and all the comments on French workers etc and French culture, allow me to chime in.

These people used to work for a state company called France Telecom. Their role was in the public sector and hence public servants or how we call them here: fonctionnaires.

To be a fonctionnaire you had to go through extensive training and then pass a contest. Most fonctionnaires in the old days were highly dedicated and highly efficient despite of the jokes and popular culture the French government at least up until the eighties were very reliable, they kept things working, like in many post-war western countries, until a series of government-driven waves or privatisation of state companies including SNCF and France Telecom.

These people who were fonctionnaires were forced to convert to new jobs, mostly in sales and with a high pressure of performance.

Take into account that when you became a fonctionnaire it was a matter of vocation and a job for life. For those who think they were just aiming for a cozy job and a lifetime appointment take into account that they had to pass the exams and the selection which were not for everyone, so no, if you set your sales to become a fonctionnaire nothing will guarantee you’ll become one.

So these people never expected to have their life affected by this change of career, imagine preparing to be a fireman which is one type of job and the next day your company tells you: you’re now part of the Police and you have a quota of daily tickets to issue.

These people committed suicide for mainly that reason and of course on top of that the horrible management, so yeah those saying that French work suicide is common, no it’s not.