Workplace waterboarding alleged
By Erin Alberty
Salt Lake Tribune
A supervisor at a motivational-coaching business in Provo, Utah, is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales teammates to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.
In a lawsuit, former Prosper Inc. salesman Chad Hudgens alleges his managers also allowed the supervisor to draw mustaches on employees’ faces, take away their chairs and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle “because it resulted in increased revenues for the company.”
Prosper President Dave Ellis responded that the allegations amount to “sensationalized” versions of events that have gone uncorroborated by Hudgens’ former co-workers.
The suit claims Hudgens’ team leader, Joshua Christopherson, asked for volunteers in May for “a new motivational exercise,” which he did not describe. Hudgens volunteered to “prove his loyalty and determination,” the suit claims.
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