Long ignored, the phenomena of depression, burn-out and harassment are now well identified in the workplace. After the trauma of the cascading suicides that struck certain companies such as France Telecom, France adopted preventive measures in order to better understand the psychosocial risks at work. But there is a category of people that has been forgotten: the bosses. On the front line, business leaders often have to face difficulties without flinching. “There was a professional and personal accumulation, testifies Mylène, manager of a language services company. I was not yet in psychological distress, but I was mired. I no longer knew where to go and I was crying for nothing. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know who to tell. »
Not spared by the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation and soaring energy prices, many bosses have turned their backs. But how many have sunk? “We often have the impression that the bosses have to overcome everything, as if it were Wonder Woman, explains Eric Challan-Belval, the president of Medef in Ille-et-Vilaine. They show resilience, but to what extent? Business leaders sometimes face multiple challenges and they need to talk about them.” This Wednesday, his employers’ organization signed an agreement with the association Rebond 35 with the aim of preventing signals of distress in the ranks of the leaders.
The suicide of a leader alerted the bosses
The association was born at the end of 2015 after a tragedy. That year, a company director from the Rennes region had committed suicide, cornered by professional difficulties that he could no longer overcome. A suicide that had sounded like a cry of alarm in the minds of several leaders of Ille-et-Vilaine and led to the creation of the association. It was she who accompanied Mylène when the latter called for help. “I needed to talk, to be coached,” she recalls. I didn’t know where to go.”
The leader called the Rebond 35 on-call number and was able to speak anonymously to a leader who is a member of the association, before being helped for three months by a coach. A job that she continued for a few more months to get back on the right track. “Healed”, Mylène has since become a volunteer with the association to help those in distress in turn: “When people call, they especially want confidentiality. Above all, they don’t want it to be known. “A real denial “specific to France”, according to Fabrice Garrault, president of Rebond 35. “In France, success is sometimes frowned upon, but so is failure. The leaders don’t want to talk about it. They lock themselves up, they isolate themselves, they compartmentalize, and do not want to talk about it to their employees or their relatives. There is a major risk if we let the situation last. This denial can be fatal, ”recalls the president of the association.
Since its creation, Rebond 35 has supported more than 250 people in difficulty. Merchants, craftsmen, self-employed, owners of VSEs, SMEs, but also managers of larger companies. “It’s sometimes a descent into hell,” says Fabrice Garrault. At home, we talk about the 3Ds: filing for bankruptcy, divorce and depression. We could even add death, because the risk exists ”. In an attempt to identify people in difficulty before it is too late, his association has signed an agreement with the Medef and the regional order of chartered accountants, which sometimes acts as a “doctor” at the bedside of the finances of the company. “Most of the time, the difficulties are economic. The reasons are multiple but the impact is very important for the manager, who can quickly find himself isolated and without a solution”.
Often, the Rebond 35 association relies on the commercial court, where business failures are examined. Courtrooms that see people pass completely collapsed during the liquidation proceedings, without being able to accompany them further. This is where the Rebond association takes over. “When the leaders know that they are talking to leaders, they are immediately reassured, advances Mylène. They know that we will understand. Me, I always tell them what happened to me, that I went through that. »
Many failures to fear in 2023?
His association then puts the boss in difficulty in connection with a therapist or a coach, in order to set up long-term support. And thus prevent the worst. “One day, I received an SMS at 8:30 in the morning which said: I am thinking of suicide. We had to intervene quickly. » Trained in listening and dialogue, the association’s volunteers are the first point of entry before a possible course of treatment. “Some people don’t want to talk to their doctor about it because they don’t want it to be known”, underlines the president of the association.
After three years of “whatever the cost”, where business failures were two to three times less numerous in France, many observers are worried about a resumption of judicial liquidations for the year 2023. The association has probably not finished supporting bosses in difficulty.