The Dark Pattern: ch. 7

Claude: GIVE ME ALL THIS INFO IN A STORY FORMAT - TELL ME THE STORY AND ALL DEFINITIONS, CASES, IMPORTANT CONCEPTS ALONGSIDE THE STORY WITH ALL KEY DETAILS - PLEPARE FOR THE QUIZ, but make storytelling COMPACT - important!!! so that reading would take less time for me but same explanation and detail style. text:

France Télécom: A Fatal Change Management Story

The Human Tragedy

Jean-Michel Laurent, a shy 53-year-old technician with 30+ years at France Télécom (FT), loved working with his hands. Forced into a call center against his will—5 minutes per call, screamed at for taking longer—he felt ashamed and demoted. His last words on July 2, 2008, while on the phone with a union rep: "Voilà le train"—"Here comes the train." He jumped.

Christel Ciroux, 37, technician turned unwilling saleswoman, transferred far from home. Two kids (10 and 12), husband traveling frequently, new hours until 7pm plus Saturdays. HR said FT wouldn't accommodate her family. June 29, 2009: she cut her wrists in front of the regional sales manager and HR director. She survived.

Nicolas Grenoville, 28, scrupulous introverted technician forced into sales with zero training. Worked 12-hour shifts. Day before his August 2009 suicide by hanging (wearing his FT T-shirt): "My job is hurting me... I was despised, insulted, yelled at. I called for help. People don't care."

The Wave: 2008-2011: 73 official employee suicides (unions claim 146), 41 attempted suicides. Methods: hanging, stabbing, throat-cutting, shooting, jumping from bridges/windows, overdoses, self-immolation.

The Context: Crisis and Transformation

1992: EU privatizes telecoms—monopolies no longer appropriate, rates too high, service poor.

1997: State-owned Direction Générale des Télécommunications becomes France Télécom. Government becomes minority shareholder. Suddenly must satisfy customers AND shareholders, not just provide public service.

Early 2000s Crisis (Three Challenges):

  1. Crushing Debt: EUR 70 billion after dot-com bubble burst (2002). Stock crashed from EUR 219 (March 2000) to EUR 6.94 (Sept 2002)

  2. Losing Money: Entertainment/media providers stealing market share, revenue shrinking, billions needed for new mobile licenses

  3. Wrong Workforce: Too many technicians trained for landlines, not mobile/internet. Needed engineers, programmers, salespeople

The Dark Leadership

February 2005: Didier Lombard becomes CEO under massive shareholder pressure. His plan: NExT (New Experiences in Telecom)—make company agile, innovative, efficient.

Key Goal: 22,000 departures in 3 years. Problem: employees were civil servants who couldn't be fired despite privatization.

February 2006: Lombard introduces his team to top 200 managers:

  • Olivier Barberot (HR director—"the ugly")

  • Louis-Pierre Wenès (deputy CEO—"the killer," notorious for humiliating managers, tasked with cutting EUR 3.5 billion in 3 years)

Lombard's warning: "Things are going to change... the good, the bad, and the ugly. And the good guy is no longer here."

October 2006: Wenès announces "more radical measures" if voluntary departures insufficient. Productivity must increase 15% in 3 years via "crash program."

The Dark Pattern Emerges

Building Block #1: Rigid Ideology

Neoliberal ideology: Prioritized revenue, profit, market share over employee health/well-being. Response to global telecom restructuring strictly followed market-first thinking.

Building Block #2: Corrupting Goals

22,000 voluntary departures = impossible. France had no real labor market. People worked whole lives at companies, especially state-owned ones. FT was their identity. Finding new jobs nearly impossible for older technicians with obsolete skills and women with children.

Lombard's threat: "I will implement the departures, one way or another, either through the door or through the window."

The Hellscape Organization

The Training Program

2006: Created École de management France (France Management School). 4,000 managers got 10-day courses on "réussir ACT" (succeed at ACT).

ACT meant: Adapt skills, Change occupation, be mobile geographically (Time to move)—or leave.

Director Thierry Lasselin: "We need to introduce a 'turnover culture'... we need to shake them up a bit."

Case Study Training: Employee caring for sick mother? Easy—transfer them hundreds of kilometers away. Staying becomes impossible.

Building Block #3: Manipulative Language

  • War metaphor: "FT is at war with Free, Bouygues, Nokia. In war there are casualties. Moving is life."

  • Dehumanization: Civil servants = "dinosaurs" unable to adapt, must disappear while small agile animals (young hires) survive

  • Euphemisms: "Mission" (isolation), "performance comparison" (humiliation), "progress interview" (pressure to quit), generic names like "NExT" and "ACT"

Former manager's quote after training: "Advised to set unachievable objectives, so that I could say: I am sorry, but we cannot continue with you."

Manager told to departing employee: "I have been mandated at the highest level to tell you that you have nothing more to expect from the company. We will do everything to make sure you leave, otherwise we will destroy you."

Building Block #4: Toxic Leadership

2010 journalist interview: "You foresaw depression—it's written in documents. You could have foreseen breakdowns?" Senior manager: "No. We didn't imagine it at all."

Reality: External trainers reported "discomfort increasingly palpable as early as 2008" but claimed they "were not present on the field." Top management claimed ignorance of training content. Trainers claimed ignorance of field implementation.

Building Block #5: Ambiguous Rules

Managers knew they were supposed to "destroy" people BUT told this was the only way to save the company. FT was in crisis under heavy pressure. Ethical dilemma: implementing AND undermining ACT were both right and wrong simultaneously.

Verticalization of HR

Major HR responsibilities shifted to line managers (not HR specialists):

  • Find the 22,000 redundant people

  • Set objectives, measure performance, cut bonuses

  • Decide who gets targeted for departure/moving/promotion

  • Increase efficiency while reducing head count

  • Make decisions without proper HR experience

Result: Business managers became HR managers forced to "liquidate" people.

The Torture Tactics

PIC (Performance Individuelle Comparée)

New software for monthly (not annual) performance reviews. Managers displayed graphs ranking team members, pressuring worst performers.

Andrée Courrier (June 18, 2009 suicide attempt): "Every morning, objective to meet. Board with our names in middle of room for everyone. Yesterday's sales highlighted... pressure constant, quota of calls without repetition, average time couldn't exceed limit. Collective had to reach quota or everyone penalized. I saw salespeople selling internet products to elderly people without computers."

Result: Competition between employees, boasting about being first, mocking those behind. Bad atmosphere. Perfect tool to identify departure candidates.

Building Block #6: Destructive Incentives

Manager bonuses: 50% of variable salary + promotions tied to head-count reduction. Meet targets = carrot (salary increase). Miss targets = stick (become target yourself, potential demotion to call center).

"Low managers" who failed faced being added to redundant list. Managers knew superiors compiled comparative tables of departures across units.

Terrible dilemma: Only get paid more by putting extreme pressure on others.

The "Mission" Tactic

Daniel Doublet, 55: Sent far from family, salary cut, given no work, known as "person doing nothing," told he was a "parasite." Felt ashamed.

Missions arrived abruptly—"you leave Monday." At new workplace: isolated, alone at desk for four, in corridor, no files, no tasks. Functional and geographical mobility = key strategy for destabilization and anxiety.

The Pressure Variations

  • Some drowned in work, others nothing to do all day

  • Some got software with zero training

  • Some given impossible objectives → bonus disappeared when they failed

  • Teams' bonuses cut for individual poor performance

  • Those achieving objectives saw targets increased next month

  • Those missing targets constantly reminded they're obstacles, need to find something else

  • Managers told to reduce "comfort" of those in "nonpriority positions"

French prosecutor's summary: "Destabilization of workers" until they volunteered to leave.

Building Block #7: Dangerous Groups

Side effect—peer isolation: Targeted employees ostracized by colleagues. Coworkers stopped greeting them, speaking to them. If victim cried in office, neighbors grabbed laptops and left room.

Everyone else just happy not to be targeted. Employee quote: "It's like trench warfare—you run and hope the shell falls not on you but on the friend next door."

Nobody supported victims. Colleagues became silent bystanders of suffering. Through verticalization, managers at all levels pulled in as colluders. Nobody wanted to be the troublemaker representing "old FT spirit."

The Vulnerable Victims

Many suicide victims described as scrupulous and passionate about work. Such people particularly vulnerable when moved to new roles—feel lack of expertise, take demotion as lack of recognition, link professional failure to personal failure.

Lack of recognition → question themselves. Social isolation made sharing pain impossible. No solidarity. They were alone.

Building Block #8: Perceived Unfairness

Manager defending himself: "It was nothing personal." For victims, most painful aspect: (perceived) randomness of selection, unfairness after years of doing job well, being proud of FT.

Wenès called himself "scapegoat": "You think you've been doing the right things, and suddenly you were stabbed in the back... like running a race and somebody gives you sudden hit."

Building Block #9: Slippery Slope

Transformation in small steps: new aggressive culture announced → new mindset trained → managers target individuals → expectations grow → people refuse → frustration grows → more aggressive methods. All happened in harmony with what everyone around was doing.

No documented incident of manager speaking up or refusing to make life uncomfortable.

Manager Justifications (In Court)

Manager of technician who attempted suicide: "To support elimination of people imposed by management, I had instructions to regularly remind agents of functional mobility... I was only following instructions that regional management imposed on me."

Manager of technician who self-immolated: "We had semester exit targets. Closer to end of semester, more pressure to put on people. Exit targets treated like business objectives, except they were number one objective."

Former strategy director on dilemma: "We were asking managers to achieve business objectives while depriving them of resources to achieve them."

Another manager: "They were told they were being placed on 'Time to Move'... It was punishment, but people didn't understand why—it was nothing personal, just to meet departure objectives."

The Unraveling

July 2009: Michel Deparis's suicide makes headlines. His letter: FT "the only reason" for killing himself.

CEO Lombard's press conference: FT must stop this "fashion for suicide" (mode de suicide). Later apologized for wording.

August 2009: Employee relocation suspended. Suicides continue. Unions mobilize, protests across France.

October 20, 2009: FT suspends entire reorganization, ceases PIC display, stops tying manager salaries to head-count reduction.

Government Investigation

Ministry of Labor sends inspectors to all 450 FT sites in France.

Report conclusion: Management "endangering others by implementing forms of work organization capable of producing severe damage to workers." Numerous warning signs over years from unions, health insurers, labor physicians—all ignored.

Resignations and Trial

October 5, 2009: Wenès resigns March 1, 2010: Lombard resigns

April 2010: Paris prosecutor investigates Lombard, Wenès, Barberot for moral harassment and compromising physical/mental health.

Their defense:

  • Suicide rate not higher than French average

  • Most victims had mental problems

  • Managers down hierarchy responsible—totally misunderstood plans

  • "If we had known, we'd never have tolerated those brutal practices"

December 2019: All three found guilty of manslaughter. Sentenced to 1 year prison (4 months firm, 8 suspended) + EUR 15,000 fine.

September 2022: Appeal court upheld convictions, changed to 1 year probation.

The Aftermath

2010: New CEO Stéphane Richard promises "re-create more humane work environment" and "put people back at heart of our development." Introduced bonus system with social-performance indicators (attendance, satisfaction).

Financial markets' reaction: Goldman Sachs analyst: "Since company focusing on employees, unlikely labor costs will drop in 2010." Downgraded FT stock from "buy" to "neutral."

Markets punished humane management.

Summary of All Dark Pattern Building Blocks

  1. Rigid Ideology: Neoliberal market-first thinking over human well-being

  2. Corrupting Goals: Impossible 22,000 "voluntary" departures; unachievable objectives for victims; managers must do more with less

  3. Manipulative Language: War metaphors, dehumanization ("dinosaurs"), euphemisms normalizing brutality

  4. Toxic Leadership: Results over well-being, authoritarianism, no empathy, manipulation, culture of fear

  5. Ambiguous Rules: Ethical dilemmas where both implementing and resisting were simultaneously right/wrong

  6. Destructive Incentives: Bonuses tied to making others suffer; stick if you fail

  7. Dangerous Groups: Peer ostracization, silent bystanders, everyone a colluder, no one speaks up

  8. Perceived Unfairness: Random selection, "nothing personal," broken people, even perpetrators felt unfairly blamed

  9. Slippery Slope: Small incremental steps, each normalized by surrounding behavior, no stopping point

The Grim Parallel

At Wells Fargo: people succumbed to pressure by committing fraud. At France Télécom: people saw no way out but killing themselves.

Both cases: leaders saw only responsibility to shareholders at any price. People became obstacles to remove through ruthless tactics disguised in euphemistic HR terms and brutal war language. Slowly, culture transformed into hell. Ruthless leaders imposed impossible goals achievable only by inflicting enough suffering that people would "volunteer" to leave. Financial incentives perfectly aligned. Humiliating performance comparisons. Familiar playground dynamic: people sided with bully, not victim. Silent watching of peer suffering to avoid becoming next victim. Profound unfairness drove some to "leave through the window"—the option on which the CEO had "loudly meditated."