Friday, February 29, 2008

Report: Employee Lawsuit Alleges Company Used Waterboarding to Motivate Workers

FOX NEWS - A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Utah allegedly used waterboarding on a member of his sales team to motivate staff, according to a lawsuit filed by an employee, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Chad Hudgens, a former salesman for Prosper, Inc., in Provo, Utah, alleges his manager, Joshua Christopherson, asked him to lie on a hill before he poured water from a gallon jug into Hudgens' mouth and nostrils as other sales staff held him down, the paper reports.

"At the conclusion of his 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," the paper said the suit alleges.

The lawsuit was filed in January. Company President Dave Ellis told the Salt Lake Tribune that the allegations were "sensationalized" and uncorroborated by co-workers regarding the May incident. "They just roll their eyes and say, 'This is ridiculous. ... That's not how it went down,'" Ellis told the paper.

Hudgens' suit claims the manager "intentionally engaged in physically and emotionally abusive conduct" to punish workers who did not meet company performance goals, the paper said.

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