Employee Alleges That He Was Waterboarded As A Motivational Tool

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No, this is not a story from The Onion. I got an email yesterday from a German journalist asking me about a law suit against a Salt Lake City firm in which a former employee alleged that he was subjected to waterboarding to increase his motivation. I was sure she that this was urban myth or something. But here is a Wired story that provides a link to the complaint. I was amazed, disgusted, and — I confess — amused to see that the company named in the complaint apparently provides self-help and motivational coaching to individual clients.

Here is excerpt from Wired:

The suit describes Joshua Christopherson, a Prosper, Inc manager, as
a supervisor who routinely punished employees by drawing fake mustaches
on them, removing their chairs and slamming a paddle down on
their desks. On May 29, 2007, Christoperson asked for volunteers for an
unspecified "new motivational exercise," which plaintiff Chad
Hudgens volunteered for to prove his loyalty, according to the suit.

Christopherson then marched his subordinates up a hill near the
office, told Hudgens to lay with his head facing downhill and ordered
other employees to hold him down, according to the suit.

Christopherson then "slowly poured a gallon of water over Hudgens’
mouth and nostrils, thereby making it impossible for Hudgens for breath
(sic) for a sustained period of time."

Hudgens soon developed depression and anxiety due to the trauma and left Prosper, according to the suit.

I wonder, what kinds of methods does Prosper use to motivate its clients? Also, I still don’t quite believe this, it sounds like an April Fool’s joke.

Comments

5 responses to “Employee Alleges That He Was Waterboarded As A Motivational Tool”

April 26, 2008

Almostgotit

I can’t quite believe this either. Nevertheless, I recall recent cases of problem teens being accidentally killed by overzealous “motivational methods” by whacky American social workers, too. I also think there’s much about the whole motivational industry that sucks, anyway. Therefore, while I love irony as much as the next guy, I’m afraid this story only horrifies, and does not amuse me.
(now, Despair.com… THAT amuses me!!)

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April 26, 2008

Mark Graban

This story was reported in many legit news outlets.
The guy really did make the accusation. The question is if the guy was lying or not.
There was quite a track record of other asshole behaviors by managers there, so I’d tend to believe the waterboarding story.
http://www.leanblog.org/2008/03/lowest-respect-for-people-score-ever.html

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April 26, 2008

Wally Bock

The Chicago Tribune had a story on this a couple of weeks back.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-torture14apr14,0,512655.story
Read the story. It won’t summarize well here.
The thing that appalls me is that there seems to be agreement that the incident happened but the supervisor (after a company investigation) is back on the job. What kind of company allows this, regardless of the purpose???

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April 26, 2008

Bob Sutton

Wally and Mark,
Thanks for the additional information. I can’t believe I missed this, and I am just amazed that the guy who apparently did it is back at work.

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April 27, 2008

Devin

This is so out there that I laughed because it was so unbelievable. This supervisor should be prosecuted.
I once worked with someone that would have thought that was genuinely funny. He destroyed or organization by abusing his coworkers. He was a self absorbed glory seeker that cared nothing for others. that would think this was ok. The coworker I mentioned had a license plate that said “Morons” and he had it to tell those around him what he thought of them. this is the only kind of person that would think the waterboarding was ok.

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