The CEO of France Telecom, whose company has been rocked by the seemingly unrelated string of employee suicides over the last few months, has quit. Louis-Pierre Wenes was one of the executives who was criticized for creating unfriendly work environments that led to depression among workers. From the AP:
The latest suicide came last week, when a 51-year-old man jumped off a bridge onto a highway in the Haute-Savoie region. In a note found in his car, the father of two blamed his act on the “atmosphere” at his workplace.
France Telecom, which has 100,000 employees, has announced a raft of measures in response to the suicides, including suspending around 500 employee transfers that are part of an ongoing reorganization.
Management has asked employees to watch out for signs of depression and suicidal tendencies among colleagues. French Labor Minister Xavier Darcos has ordered an official to monitor France Telecom’s health and safety meetings following the suicides.
You’ve heard of “going postal,” a euphemism for “going crazy” that was coined when several disgruntled postal employees all started firing off weapons at work. Well, now there’s a newer, sadder phenomenon happening. Within the last 18 months, 23 employees of France Telecom, a telecommunications company, have committed suicide. While there’s no other known link between the different employees other than their jobs (France Telecom is a nationwide company, and the employees who killed themselves were not all in the same offices). The Times Online has a fascinating in-depth article with possible theories about what led these civil cervants to take their own lives:
Le travail is the cornerstone of modern France in other ways, too, Baudelot says. “In Italy and Spain, people rely on the family for solidarity. In the UK, there is both a cult of individualism where you are taught to get by on your own and a sort of primal neighbourhood solidarity — in the pub, for instance. France is different. People are taught to get by in groups and it is in the workplace where they seek the solidarity they need. The workplace is the cement of our society.”
The cement, however, is cracking as unemployment and globalisation impose a competitive edge to the world of work. “The violence of the modern economy is the same everywhere. But it is felt much more keenly in France,” says Baudelot. “People sense that social bonds are unravelling and they are disorientated by that.”
It’s never fun to report the death of an assistant. Last week, longtime assistant Michael Davison, who worked for Warren Beatty, Barry Diller, and Nicolas Cage, was killed in a car accident while on vacation in Hawaii. An obituary in the Hollywood Reporter referred to Davison as “one of the most experienced and respected personal assistants in the entertainment industry.”
Brian “Ren” Renfield Nelson, longtime assistant to rocker Alice Cooper, passed away in June. In addition to being Cooper’s PA, Nelson was a collector of Cooper memorabilia and an all-around nice guy. In his honor, the Spider’s Parlor YouTube channel created a special video:
Personally, I would love it if Alice Cooper wrote a song in honor of Ren the way that Bruce Springsteen did when his assistant, Terry Magovern, died in 2007.
It is with extreme sadness that we need to inform the community of Alice Cooper fans of the passing of Brian “Renfield” Nelson, Alice’s long-time archivist and personal assistant. It was a sudden, completely unexpected, and untimely passing. We would appreciate it if you would keep him in your thoughts, appreciate his many contributions to Alice’s life and career over the years, and respect Brian’s privacy and the privacy of Alice and his extended family (at home and on tour) at this time.
Alice is currently on tour in Russia, because the show must go on, which is as Brian would have wanted it.
“Ren,” as he was called, was both an assistant and a fan. It was through his fandom (he collected Alice memorabilia which included Alice’s original birth certificate) that he got the gig as Alice’s PA. He had been working as Alice’s assistant since the early ’80s.
A lot of STA is devoted to kvetching about assistant life, but it’s always worth pointing out when an assistant is truly happy at his or her job, as Ren always seemed to be. May he rest in peace.
Andy Hallett, a singer and actor who played Lorne on the TV show Angel, died yesterday at the age of 33. Hallett died of “a five-year battle with congestive heart disease,” according to his agent.
Hallett got his start in Hollywood as a messenger at a talent agency. Following that, he was hired to be the personal assistant to Kai Cole, better known as Mrs. Joss Whedon. Whedon, who was in the process of casting the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, asked Hallett to audition and ended up giving him the role of Lorne, a demon who ran a karaoke club.
I’m sorry that I didn’t know about Hallett’s background sooner and was thus not able to do a “Former Assistant Done Good” post about him. It’s always sad to lose one of our own, be it a current or past assistant.
For those of you who may not have heard of British reality star Jade Goody, who died today of cervical cancer, I will try to give a brief summary. Goody grew up in a poor, troubled household in London. She briefly worked as a dental assistant before being cast on the hugely popular reality show Big Brother. She became a breakout star - loved by some for being a ‘regular person’ and ‘working class heroine,’ despised by some for being uneducated, overweight, and a negative stereotype. Love or hate her, the British tabloids chose her as a regular subject, covering every aspect of her life, from her relationship with TV host Jeff Brazier (which resulted in two young sons) to her continued adventures in reality shows, which included an-Apprentice like series where she looked for a personal assistant. She did another stint on Big Brother and made international headlines for her awful treatment of housemate Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress. To make amends, Jade appeared on India’s version of Big Brother, where she learned - on camera - that she had advanced cervical cancer. Since then, she sold the rights to everything from pictures of her in the hospital to updates on her treatment, saying that she had to do what she could to earn money for her sons while she was alive.
Although Jade was always a controversial figure during her short life (she was 27 when she died), she definitely will remain a British pop culture icon. My aunt died of a similar cancer, and I know that Jade was in extreme pain toward the end of her life. Her choice to live and die on camera may not have been a choice I would have made, but I admire the way she was able to use pop culture to turn her life around. My thoughts today are with the family and friends of this former assistant.
Patrick Kinna, 95, who spent years - including the duration of World War II - as Winston Churchill’s personal assistant, has died in Brighton, England. Kinna was chosen for the position because of his intelligence, skill, and discretion. This is my favorite part from his obituary:
Churchill often used to dictate letters and memos to Mr Kinna from his bath and one of his favourite stories came from an incident at the White House at Christmas 1941.
Kinna was summoned to take notes while the Prime Minister was soaking in the bath and on occasion Churchill would get out and pace about as he spoke with nothing on.
At one stage there was a knock on the door and when Churchill opened it, Roosevelt was there in his wheelchair.
The mortified president tried to leave but Churchill said: “Oh, no, no, no Mr. President. As you can see, I have nothing to hide from you.”
Rest in peace, Mr. Kinna. You were an honor to your profession.
Wrestler Chase Tatum (above, far left), who appeared in several music videos and films, died March 23 of an apparent drug overdose. He was 34.
Tatum was found by a friend at his Buckhead, Georgia home, where he was recovering from surgery to repair a degenerative disc in his back.
World Championship wrestler Tatum appeared on TV shows such as MTV’s “Punk’d” and in videos for Outkast. He recently appeared in the film “Who’s Your Caddy?” with Antwan “Big Boi” Patton of Outkast, for whom he had worked as a road manager and personal assistant.
He won the Mr. Georgia bodybuilding competition at the age of 19 and became a wrestler, also working at times as a an actor, bodyguard, personal trainer.
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Andy Hallett, a singer and actor who played Lorne on the TV show Angel, 
For those of you who may not have heard of British reality star Jade Goody, 