Torture at Work

It sounds like something out of The Office, but it happened in real life. The Washington Post reports that Chad Hudgens, a sales representative for Prosper, Inc., is suing his employer for waterboarding him as part of a "team building exercise." Hudgens volunteered, he claims, not knowing specifically what the exercise would be. The last time the team had done an exercise outside it was an egg toss. Two coworkers held him down, leaning backwards, while his supervisor poured water over his nose and mouth. His supervisor remarked immediately afterwards, "You saw how hard Chad fought for air right there. I want you to go back inside and fight that hard to make sales."

There's more, too, although less dramatic. From the article:

Hudgens alleged that if the 10-person sales team went a day without a sale, members had to work the next day standing up; [their supervisor,] Christopherson took away their chairs. The team leader also threatened to draw a mustache in permanent marker on the face of sales people for "negativity," Hudgens said. Christopherson kept on his desk a piece of wood, "the 2-by-4 of motivation," he said.

Wow.

MM