UK Edition
A French perfume company has been ordered to pay €40,000 (£36,000) in damages to a former employee who suffered from “bore out” because he was not given anything interesting to do.
In the first such verdict of its kind in France, Parisian Frédéric Desnard took his former employer, Interparfums, to the workers’ tribunal arguing that his managerial role was so uninteresting that it drove him to depression.
The term used in court was “bore-out” - the opposite of “burnout” where an employee is overworked to the point of nervous collapse.
Mr Desnard accused his former employers of giving him menial tasks at work over a four-year period, which he dubbed "a descent into hell”.
Tedium took its toll on Mr Desnard, who was made redundant in late 2014 after taking sick leave due to anxiety and depression. His lawyers argued that the “bore out” even drove him to have an epileptic fit while driving.
He was relegated to doing jobs that had nothing to do with managerial role after being stripped of his real responsibilities, including configuring the CEO’s tablet and receiving the plumber at his boss’s home.
“He no longer had anything to do,” his lawyer, Victor Billebault told the tribunal, which ruled that there was a link between Mr Desnard’s work and “the deterioration in his health”.
In its defence, lawyers for the perfume company had argued that Mr Desnard "never said anything about being bored during the four-year period".
"And if he actually had nothing to do over these years, why didn't he mention it?,” asked one.
Mr Desnard had been seeking €550,000 for harassment and unfair dismissal. This is reportedly the first case of "bore out" in French court history.
However, some analysts estimate that up to a third of French workers suffer from the condition.
Jean Claude Delgènes, whose firm Technologia specializes in risks to employees, said these can occur when someone feels stuck in their job but unwilling to take the risk of changing jobs.
"The problem today with boredom at work is that people are afraid to leave their jobs to do something else," he told Europe 1 radio.
France has long battled with high unemployment levels and a stagnant labour market. Levels dropped to around eight per cent earlier this year for the first time in a decade only to shoot back up during the coronavirus pandemic.
Not all French workers complain of being given little to do in France.
Charles Simon caused a stir in 2015 after it emerged he had been paid more than €5,000 a month by state rail operator SNCF over a period of 12 years, despite not working for a single day.
When rumbled, he then demanded a further €500,000 compensation for effectively being cut adrift, albeit with his salary intact.