Labor & Employment
Suit Claims Boss Waterboarded Worker as Motivational Tack
Posted Apr 14, 2008, 10:54 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A suit by a sales employee claims his boss subjected him to waterboarding as part of a “team-building exercise.”
Chad Hudgens, part of a 10-person telephone sales team, said he had volunteered for the exercise, devised by his supervisor during a slow sales week, but had no idea what he was about to experience, the Washington Post reports.
The supervisor Joshua Christopherson, hoped to teach the salesmen that they needed to fight for sales just as Hudgens fought for air. But Hudgens and the company, Prosper Inc., disagree about how badly Hudgens was affected and how much he knew before he volunteered for the exercise. Under Utah law the case will be governed by workers' compensation unless the employer had a "conscious and deliberate intent" to inflict injury.
Hudgens says his immediate reaction was that the exercise nearly killed him. Co-workers held him down, he told the Post, and Christopherson poured a gallon jug of water on his face. “I can't scream because the water's going down my throat,” he said. Hudgens said he tried to tell to tell his boss to stop but he couldn’t get the words out.
"I'm not getting any air," he told the Post. "Toward the end, I'm starting to black out. I'm getting very dizzy, light-headed. The sensation that's going through my head is, 'I'm going to drown.' "
Prosper general counsel George Brunt told the Post the incident was not nearly as bad at Hudgens claimed. "We're not the mean waterboarding company that people think we are," he said. “A little bit of water was poured, and then Josh would stop and say, 'Are you OK?' I can't say he wasn't held down, but anybody holding him would have let him up if he'd held his hand up."
Related Stories
- Suspended Texas PI Lawyer Gets 35 Years in Client Theft Case
Aug 29, 2008, 04:18 pm CDT - Attorney and PI Convicted in Celebrity Wiretapping Case
Aug 29, 2008, 03:30 pm CDT - Defendants Salvo Back at Feds in Ga. Court Corruption Case
Aug 29, 2008, 03:16 pm CDT - LAPD Hunts 23-Year Serial Killer
Aug 29, 2008, 12:16 pm CDT
Commenting has expired on this post.
Comments
Posted by Trop - 4 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
I suppose they’re the “nice” waterboarding company.
-Trop
Posted by Jennifer - 4 months, 2 weeks, 12 hours, 34 minutes ago
How do you hold up your hand if your co-workers are holding you down?
Who thinks that almost drowning someone or committing any other possible torture method is a useful management tool? I hope Prosper’s GC is re-educating management!
Posted by Jay - 4 months, 2 weeks, 2 hours, 18 minutes ago
True, probably not a good “management” tool.
But it sure seems like it would work for interrogation!