Former CEO jailed for creating a toxic workplace
One of France’s most shocking corporate scandals has come to symbolize the devastating human cost of toxic management and ruthless restructuring. Didier Lombard, the former CEO of France Télécom, was sentenced to prisonalongside two other senior executives for creating a work environment so toxic that it drove dozens of employees to despair — and, tragically, to death.
The case centered on a massive restructuring plan launched in the mid-2000s, aimed at cutting 22,000 jobs and retraining another 10,000 workers as the company transitioned from a state-owned utility to a competitive private firm. Behind those numbers, however, was a campaign of psychological pressure that systematically targeted long-term employees and pushed them to quit.
Workers were transferred far from their families, assigned humiliating or meaningless tasks, or left behind when entire offices relocated. The intention, prosecutors argued, was to make life so unbearable that employees would resign voluntarily, saving the company the cost and bad publicity of mass layoffs.
The results were catastrophic. Of the 39 employees highlighted in court, 19 took their own lives, 12 attempted suicide, and many more were diagnosed with severe depression or left unable to work. In one particularly harrowing case, a man set himself on fire in the company’s parking lot after being repeatedly transferred against his will.
During the trial, witnesses described a culture of fear and humiliation, where management openly referred to the restructuring as “getting people out one way or another.” Internal emails revealed a deliberate strategy to create instability and break resistance.
The French court ruled that the company’s leadership had engaged in “institutional moral harassment”, holding them criminally responsible for the suffering and deaths of their employees. Lombard and other executives received prison sentences and fines, while France Télécom itself — now operating under the name Orange — was also penalized.
The verdict marked a historic first in France and Europe, as it was the first time that top corporate leaders were convicted for psychological harassment on a massive scale. Beyond the legal consequences, the case sparked a national reckoning over workplace culture, corporate ethics, and the mental health crisis within modern labor systems.
The France Télécom tragedy stands as a stark reminder that behind every restructuring plan are real human lives — and that the pursuit of profit can never justify the destruction of dignity, health, and hope.
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