How is it in this day and age that some manager out there thinks things like paddling the employees is a good idea? Disregarding the respect issue, which I think is too far above the level of these people to be relevant to them, what about common sense? If you spank your employee you are going to get sued. If you force your employee to be videotaped baring her breasts and then show that to other people (Maury Povich scandal) you are going to get sued. Am I the only person to whom this seems obvious? How do these things still happen?

Companies who engage in retarded team building activities should be sued. It's like a stupidity tax

Then they shouldn't ask for over a million dollars in compensation when they sue. I'm not necessarily objecting to the lawsuit, although I'd like to know more. I can't imagine anybody at my office suggesting that we should spank each other, for any reason, and if someone was crazy enough to do it, I would object. Did she object? Did anybody object? Was anybody punished or fired or not promoted if they didn't participate? Or is this a case of going along voluntarily due to peer pressure and then having regrets later? Overall, I'd need to know more - but if she voluntarily participared in this activity without objecting, and if the silly game was played by all people in the department, then I don't think she has much of a case. It's only harassment if it was clearly not voluntary. Companies have asked people to do silly things before, and will again. Heck, at our last team meeting we all played a "team building" game that was kind of silly, but we went along. No spanking r other humiliation was involved. If a company ever asked me to wear a diaper, I'd quit, not sue.

Yeah, Baby!!

"discrimination, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress."

Sounds like standard sales "motivational techniques" to me. I've worked in various kinds of sales, and this kind of juvenile BS is pretty common...rah-rah speeches, little songs, mottos that everyone is forced to repeat...and petty humiliation and frat-boy hazing of those who don't meet their "goals."

A lot of sales managers think "motivation" means keeping those under you in a state of constant fear and emotional dependence.

Doesn't make it right, of course, but I expect that the defense will be something along those lines.

Note to employers and managers everywhere: If you consciously think the terms "team building" or "motivation" to yourself, the activity in question isn't going to accomplish "team building" and will motivate nobody. Once you cross that threshold, the activity is lame and will have the opposite effect. This is a sort of social conscience talking to you, telling you not to torture your employees.

In this case the event planners will have had maybe fifteen chances to apply this rule. "Motivation" through the use of the other companies' signs -- LAME. They could have caught themselves right there, before ingrown sensibilities about motivation led them to forced, "ha ha" spanking rituals.

(This is a corollary to the "I don't want to offend anyone" rule: if you naturally preface a given statement with "I don't want to offend anyone, but" that's a pretty good sign that the only purpose the statement will serve is to offend someone. Catch yourself at this point. Your good sense is trying to get a message through.)

Diane,

You make an interesting point about whether the plaintiff objected at the time of the spanking, or is "havin regrets later." You say that if she didn't object, she hardly has a case. Quite the opposite is true -- in sexual harrassment cases and discrimination cases, you don't necessarily have to object to the person harrassing you when they are harrassing you. Suits for discrimination oftenallege discriminatory behavior over a long period of time, and much of it before the employee complained to HR. You pretty much need to speak to someone about it, like HR, but some companies don't have an HR department, and then your only recourse is the very boss who is doing the harrassing, in which case, if you go talk to him, you'll probably be fired, and courts are sometimes sympathetic to that.

If someone asked you to wear a diaper, don't quit. Complain to HR or the boss. If you get fired, it would have been the same as quitting. If not, you still have your job. Then sue the hell out of them for hostile work environment. They deserve it. Would you not report it if someone sexually assaulted you? I hope not. I hope you would report it and press charges. Same goes for things like this.

Sure, without knowing the details of the case it's kind of hard to judge, but come on - $1.2 million? So this person basically thinks that the company owes them never having to work for the rest of her life because of some silly thing that probably shouldn't have happened but doesn't seem very harmful?

The $1.2 million figure could be attached to this story for any number of reasons.

It's easy to jump up and shout "frivolous lawsuit" over something -- but let's all remember the Mickey-D's coffee case, which wasn't quite what it seemed, was it? The punitive damages in that case were initially set at something like a couple of days' worth of coffee sales for McDonalds. (Lots of details about the case are out there, no need to spell it all out again.)

We don't know whether this is "ridiculous" or whether the case has merit unless we're a judge or jury or one of the parties involved. The amount could be high, or it could be what this person typically earned in a couple of years, or whatever. (Probably we won't find out, either, because they'll settle it -- like the McDonald's case.)

The disgusting behavior described in the article is only an extreme version of the typical stuff that goes on at "Motivational" or "Human Potential" seminars. It all started, I think, in the 1970s with the est "no potty breaks for 12 hours" seminars.

"Motivational Speakers" and their programs are tailor-made for people in certain professions who feel they need to strive more to make more - and be "punished" if they can't make the grade. I belong to such a group - real-estate agents. Too many of us have self-esteem issues and are pushovers for any "get-rich-quick" charlatan. (Know how to "Make Millions of Dollars in Real Estate?" Simple! Make a motivational DVD and sell it to suckers like us!)

I'm all for continuing-ed and professional training, but as for those who practice and promote degrading, exploitative and ultimately ineffective methods...banish them all to that "Van By The River" made famous by SNL's Chris Farley!!!