Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter, 49, had trouble with being on call 24/7. Pierre Wauthier, 53, CFO at Zurich Insurance Group was in the middle of a horrendous conflict with his CEO.

    Both men ended their problems by taking their own lives: Schloter in July, Wauthier last week. While it is almost impossible to draw general conclusions from something so personal and complex as a suicide, their deaths raise a question: Have working conditions in the C-suite become so intense that suicide appears to offer the only answer for some?

    Statistics about senior executive suicides are scarce, if non-existent. "I don't know of any data in the U.S.," says Eric Caine, a suicide researcher at the University of Rochester. "There is a literature on suicide and occupation, but that is not specified to C-level executives. There is also very little anecdotal evidence. The reason is that people tend to hide these tragedies. Only the most prominent make it to the press."

    General suicide rates in the U.S. in 2010 are at 12.08 per 100,000 people, according to data from the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C. The rate is on the rise, though: At the turn of the century, it was around 10.8 per 100,000. By comparison, suicide rates in Switzerland, where both Swisscom and Zurich Insurance are based, have actually gone down: from 17.2 per 100,000 in 2000 to 11.1 per 100,000 in 2010. In the EU as a whole, the rate has gone down as well from 11.8 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 10.2 in 2010, according to Eurostat.

    Suicide within the C-suite almost seems counterintuitive. "As a class of people, top executives tend to have better mental health than those on the lower rungs of an organization," says Caine. "They have more resources and less financial issues, more people to help them with the adversities in their lives, and their idiosyncrasies are often tied to their success, giving them an outlet for their creative needs."

    But it is no secret that pressure on C-level executives is mounting, says Manfred Kets de Vries, a management professor at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France. The growing demands of the information age have stretched the workday to its limits. A few months before his death, Swisscom's Schloter complained about constantly having to be reachable. "The most dangerous thing that can happen is that you drop into a mode of permanent activity," he explained in an interview with Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag in May. "When you permanently check your smartphone to see if there are any new emails, it leads to you not finding any rest whatsoever."

    "You have to manage these devices very carefully, and many of us don't do it very well," says Kets de Vries, who also holds a degree in psychoanalysis. "I work a lot with CEOs, and in my classes, computers, iPhones, and iPads are not allowed. I have noticed a dependency on these devices, to the point where it becomes a disease. I had a student last year I suspected of having a weak bladder. In fact, he had to go out regularly to check his messages on his three phones."  

    49岁的瑞士电信公司（Swisscom）首席执行官卡斯滕•施洛特被每天24小时不间断的电话骚扰得不胜其烦。53岁的苏黎世保险公司（Zurich Insurance Group）首席财务官皮埃尔•瓦塞勒，与公司的首席执行官处于激烈的斗争之中。

    两位高管都选择了通过结束生命来彻底解决自身的问题：施洛特在今年七月，瓦塞勒在上周。尽管从自杀这般如此私密和复杂的事件中得出普遍的结论几乎不可能，但他们的死还是提出了一个问题：难道高管的工作环境已经紧张到了这个地步，以至于自杀成为了其中一些人唯一的选择？

    高管自杀的相关数据少得可怜，聊胜于无。罗彻斯特大学（University of Rochester）的自杀问题研究员埃里克•凯恩说：“我不知道美国有任何相关的数据。有一篇文献谈到了自杀和职位，但是并没有特指高管群体。也几乎没有任何事实证据。原因在于人们倾向于隐瞒这些悲剧，只有一些最突出的事件得到了报道。”

    位于华盛顿的美国自杀学学会（American Association of Suicidology）的数据显示，2010年，美国每10万人中有12.08人自杀。不过这个数据正在上升：上世纪末，自杀率大约是10万分之10.8。与之形成对比的是，瑞士电信公司和苏黎世保险公司所在的瑞士，自杀率实际上正在下降，从2000年的10万分之17.2降到2010年的10万分之11.1。根据欧盟统计局的数据，欧洲整体的自杀率同样有所下降，从2000年的10万分之11.8下降到了2010年的10万分之10.2。

    高管级别的自杀似乎与人们的常识不符。凯恩说：“高管群体的心理健康状况优于组织中的较低级别群体。他们掌握着更多的资源，面临着较少的经济问题。面对生活中的逆境，他们能得到更多人的帮助。他们的个性往往与他们的成功密不可分，这让他们的个性化需求得到了宣泄。”

    不过，法国枫丹白露的欧洲工商管理学院（INSEAD）商学院管理学教授曼弗雷德•凯茨•德•弗里斯表示：高管的压力正在逐渐增加，这已经不再是秘密。信息时代不断增长的需求已经让每天的工作时间延长到了极限。瑞士电信公司的施洛特在自杀前几个月曾经抱怨自己总得处于能联系上的状态。他在五月的某期《瑞士周报》（Schweiz am Sonnta）的采访中解释说：“可能发生的最危险的事，是你陷入了永动机的模式当中。当你一直要查看智能手机，查看有没有新邮件时，你就再也不可能发现其他任何事情了。”

    凯茨•德•弗里斯还获得过精神分析学的学位，他说：“我们得非常谨慎地管理这些设备，而我们当中很多人做得并不好。我给很多首席执行官上过课，在我的课堂上禁止使用电脑、iPhone和iPad。我发现人们对于这些设备的依赖已经到了病态的地步。去年有个学生，我一度怀疑他膀胱出了毛病。实际上，他只是得定时出去查看他三部手机里的短信。”  

    Instead of constantly being pushed in real time, executives need reflective inactivity, says Kets de Vries. "When I start working with a CEO, I always take a look into their agendas first. I always find them completely full. When do these people have time to think? Cross a few days out, or spend an afternoon walking in the park. That might be the best use of your time."

    Another stress factor is corporate culture itself. "The short-termism of shareholders and the shame of not being able to make your numbers can be relentless, especially in publicly traded companies," says Kets de Vries. "To deal with this, the quality of the relationship between superior and subordinate is very important."

    That is where it seemed to have gone wrong for Zurich CFO Pierre Wauthier, who left a suicide note mentioning his boss Josef Ackermann. "Wauthier was described by his friends and colleagues as easygoing, rational, and calm in his normal state," says Gerald Kraines, clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "But the combination of extreme internal conflicts and a perfectionistic need to be successful became unrelenting. Some months before his suicide, he spoke in the press about how all this pressure made it intensely difficult to switch off from work. My sense about him is that he was in a state of severe hyper-arousal and entrapment, to a point where the only way to get out of the pain was to die."

    Adds Kets de Vries, "Senior executives need a place to dump their garbage. Being able to talk about your real problems and anxieties can add years to your life. Some people have a good partner, a wife, or a husband who can help them detox. But many executives are not so lucky. Why do you think the coaching profession has grown so explosively over the past couple of years? All these executives are trying to find someone to talk to."

    While rigidity, perfectionism, and the need to be in control are common traits among executives worldwide, national culture may play a role in countries like Germany and even Switzerland, says Kraines. "In the top, there is a tremendous sense of pride that makes quitting very difficult. In some ways, it's like when Japanese executives get shamed or trapped and feel they have no choice but to kill themselves. In their mind, the humiliation of resigning would be more painful than just dying."

    The business culture within American corporations is less taxing, argues Kraines. "In the U.S., we don't tend to think that if you're not successful, you're an abject failure. We have this sort of national belief that if you pick yourself up and try again, you'll make it some day.

    "Besides, there is such a norm of American executives being canned, that there is less humiliation and shame in it. Twenty years ago, the average tenure of a CEO was six to seven years. Now it's barely half of that. Getting fired or quitting has become part of the game."  

    凯茨•德•弗里斯表示，高官们不应该被不断地推着走，不需要那么迅速地作出反应。“我给CEO讲课时，总会先看看他们的议程安排。我常发现他们的日程排得满满当当的。这些人什么时候有空思考？空出几天时间，或花上一个下午在公园漫步，这也许是利用时间的最好方式。”

    另一个导致压力的因素是企业文化本身。“股东的短期盈利主义和无法达成指标数量的羞耻感是无情的，尤其是在公开上市交易的公司中。要解决这个问题，上下级关系的好坏与否至关重要。”

    对于苏黎世的首席财务官皮埃尔•瓦塞勒来说，就是这一点出了问题。他在遗书中提到了他的老板约瑟夫•阿科尔曼。哈佛医学院（Harvard Medical School）的精神病学临床讲师杰拉德•克莱恩说：“在瓦塞勒的朋友和同事的描述中，他平时平易近人，非常理性，而且很冷静。但是极端的内部矛盾和追求成功的完美主义太冷酷了。自杀前几个月，他在新闻中透露，这种压力让他无法从工作中解脱。我感觉他处于严重的过度觉醒状态，陷入了死结，导致他唯一逃离痛苦的办法只能是死亡。”

    凯茨•德•弗里斯补充道：“高管需要一个倾倒内心垃圾的地方。说出真正的问题和焦虑有助于身体健康。有些人有很好的同伴、妻子或丈夫来帮助自己排毒。但是许多高管则没有这么幸运。你以为私人教练这个行当为什么在过去几年来出现了爆炸式的增长？就是因为这些高管们正在试着找到一个可以倾诉的对象。”

    克莱恩表示，严厉刻板、完美主义、让一切事物出于控制之中，这是全世界高管的共同特质，德国甚至瑞士的民族文化或许也在其中起到了影响。“居于高位的自豪感是如此强烈，急流勇退变得难以实现。某种程度上，这就像日本高管感到羞耻，走投无路，认为除了自杀以外已别无选择一样。在他们看来，辞职带来的羞耻感比死亡更令人痛苦。”

    克莱恩认为，美国公司的企业文化给人带来的负荷较轻。“在美国，我们不会觉得你不成功，你是个悲惨的失败者。我们的国民观点是：如果你找回自我，重新尝试，终有成功的一天。”

    “此外，美国高管被解雇实在太正常了，因此羞耻感没那么强烈。20年前，首席执行官的任期平均在六到七年，现在仅能勉强达到以前的一半。被炒鱿鱼或者主动辞职已经成为了生意场权力游戏的一个组成部分。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正