Helpful Tip of the Day: Don’t Torture Your Employees
A lawsuit claims that a Utah company engaged in highly questionable motivational practices, including waterboarding.
The Allegations
The lawsuit alleges that executive coaching company Prosper, Inc. has rather unique ways of motivating its own employees, including such time-honored HR techniques as waterboarding, drawing mustaches on low-performing employees’ faces, taking away the chairs of salespeople who fail to make sales and beating on desks with a wooden paddle dubbed the “two-by-four of motivation.”
As for the alleged waterboarding, Chad Hudgens alleges that his supervisor, Joshua Christopherson, asked for volunteers for a “new motivational exercise.” Hudgens says that Christopherson didn’t describe the exercise and that he volunteered to “prove his loyalty and determination.”
Christopherson allegedly led the team to a hilltop near the office and instructed Hudgens to lie down with his head downhill. Hudgens says that Chrisopherson then poured water over his nose and mouth and told team members to hold him down while he struggled to breathe. “At the conclusion of the abusive demonstration, Christopherson told the team that he wanted them to work as hard on making sales as Chad had worked to breathe while he was being waterboarded,” according to Hudgens.
The Company’s Response
The company vigorously disputes Hudgens’ claims. It says that Christopherson described the exercise before Hudgens volunteered and that no one held him down. Company president Dave Ellis contends that management was unaware of the events alleged by Hudgens and that employees described them as “more along the lines of fun.” “It’s voluntary, it’s humorous, it’s team and camaraderie-building,” said Ellis.
Hudgens says he complained about Christopherson but that nothing was done. The company counters by saying that Hudgens waited six weeks to lodge his complaint and even went on a company-sponsored water-skiing outing in the interim. It says that Christopherson was suspended for two weeks while the allegations were investigated but then was returned to his same position because Hudgens’ complaints were uncorroborated. The company described Christopherson as a “really nice, pleasant, polite young man” who is ”very dedicated and takes his job very seriously.”
Hudgens, on the other hand, says that Christopherson “intentionally engaged in physically and emotionally abusive conduct.” He says he was forced to leave the company because of emotional trauma, anxiety, depression and insomnia brought on by the alleged waterboarding.
According to its website, Prosper’s mission is “to provide our students with the education and hands-on experiences they need to achieve their personal and professional goals.”
The Lesson? It’s pretty simple: whether or not the allegations in this case are true, we suggest that employers find better ways than torture to motivate employees. It’s perfectly fine to be creative but think deeply about potentially negative side-effects. In short, carrots usually work better than sticks (or two-by-fours).
