Within the past two years, five engineers working for Renault committed suicide ; four of them did it at their office. They were all employed in the R & D division (Le Technocentre) which is located near Paris.
The corporate management was more than cautious and immediately condemned the possible association between the facts and the working conditions. The unions on the contrary, point out the widespread feeling of anxiety among the personnel. They blame it partly on the workload and partly on the management style which too often consists in publicly humiliating the individuals.
Comments, specially on the net, focus the criticism on economic liberalism and on Carlos Ghosn, the CEO : the environment and the leader of the firm are both seriously incriminated ; not the firm as such.
Yet, Renault has a long history which deserves attention. A french psychiatrist, known for his research on the causes of professional distress, gives us a clue in a few words : "Suicide is a signature. The place where it happens is meaningful, and says something to someone."
Precisely, the company follows a number of indicators of stress but as a human resource manager said :"We have not perceived the signals beforehand." It shows how dealing with the symptoms only, is inefficient, when it comes to human nature. Even worse, a global inquiry was conducted among all the employees of the firm, a few months ago, to check their involvement in the corporate strategy.
There is something missing obviously : the corporate unconscious is far more involved than liberalism or Mr Ghosn himself. Since it was created in 1899, Renault has always been a difficult working environment. Louis Renault, the founder, was a genius in mechanics but a very awkward manager diffusing anxiety across the company. Renault is an ideal case study regarding the mechanism fostering the duplication of personal behaviors, management style, organisation structures and corporate strategy, over the years. Changes in the environment, ownership and management, did not help.
The reality of corporate unconscious is all too obvious to be perceived, just like the letter sent to the queen in Edgar Poe's "The puloined letter". It is actually experienced by all those who work in the company ; what is missing is just talking about it. The reason why it does not happen is the mystery of the unconscious.
Five persons are dead, but as William Faulkner brilliantly wrote : "The past is never dead"
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