24th Suicide Hits France Telecom

A call-center worker has become the 24th victim of what France Telecom calls a "spiral of suicides" among its employees over the last 18 months. The 51-year-old father of two jumped from a bridge onto a highway during morning rush hour in a small town in the French Alps, the Independent reports. He left a note blaming "the atmosphere at work" for his suicide. Union officials say the man had been under pressure since being shifted to a role cold-calling potential customers.

French government officials recently met with executives to insist the company devise a plan to address the problem. "This is shameful," said a union spokeswoman. "He was working in a call-center which was known to be insufferable. There was no interest in people as individuals, no humanity. They only cared about figures. The employees were treated like minced meat." (More France Telecom stories.)