The French government recently faced huge protests against unpopular changes to the country’s labor law.

Most of its critics would argue that French workers increasingly face burnout and exhaustion. But one employee has had far different problems: He sued his former company because his job was allegedly extremely boring.

The plaintiff, 44-year-old Parisian Frédéric Desnard, is demanding more than $400,000 from his former employer, a perfume enterprise, as compensation for the boredom it allegedly caused. According to Desnard, the company should be held responsible for mental and other health damages as well as the financial consequences of him missing out on a promotion.

Desnard claims that he was removed from his previous high-profile position in the company. For the next four years, he was asked to carry out much duller tasks.

Speaking to French newspaper Le Monde, Desnard said his company wanted to bore him ‘‘to death’’ in order to convince him to quit voluntarily and therefore limit severance payments. But amid a sluggish French economy, Desnard simply decided to stay and do nothing. In the following four years, he reportedly earned more than $90,000 per year.

Washington Post