Motivational coaching company Prosper is the subject of an unusual lawsuit: “A supervisor…is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.” C’mon team, let’s Gitmo sales! [Salt Lake Tribuine]
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Great pun.
thats nothin, we play russian roulette at my office every payday. survivors split the pay of the loser.
Apparently waterboarding is the new black.
WTF?
wow. they wonder why people go postal?
Proving once against that waterboarding isn’t torture, its just a motivational tool.
Jesus, they didn’t even do it right!
You’re supposed to put cloth over their head so they don’t *really drown*!!
HAAAA, getmo sales. I’m dying laughing at work. So when was this? I’m hoping it was in a joking manner.
That’s a team building experience to die for!
On the plus side, it’s the one time you’d actually be able to get away with punching your boss. Now that’s motivation!
LOL
Maybe afterwards he disemboweled the intern and used his frantically scooping up his entrails as an analogy for holding on to customers
Did he ask a female employee to help demonstrate how much effort you should use to please a customer?
This story is about an incident at Prosper Inc (www.prosperlearning.com/), which is not the same as the peer-to-peer lending site Prosper.com as stated in the headline.
Um, isn’t this a different Prosper? Like, Prosper, Inc. the Utah-based motivational coaching company rather than Prosper Marketplace, Inc. the California-based online p2p loan site?
I’ll take Basic Journalistic Standards for $100, Alex.
Ummm last I checked [www.prosper.com] isn’t about motovating executives it’s about p2p lending. Someone here as their domains crossed.
Waterboarding is SO pre-911.
Buried for inaccuracy.
As a social experiment, I’d like to interview this victim every month and find out exactly when having so much money you never have to work another day in your life makes up for actually being tortured at work.
I hope at one point it does.
Also in the news…
Consumerist.com sued for defamation and libel after publishing inaccurate story confusing online lender Prosper.com, with motivational coaching company in Utah.
Prosper.com seeks $1B in compensatory damages, and $999,999,999,999B in punitive damages, promises to use punitive damages to heal the subprime housing crisis, all the while defeating the terrorists.
Prosper.com released a statement saying “We take this matter VERY seriously.”
Did I get them all? I know I missed one somewhere.
Just wanted to applaud that little pun at the end.
We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize?
Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is waterboarding.
What’s really funny about the whole waterboarding fiasco is that the US Government has only waterboarded a total of three people…
@vliam: If only they had better leads…
@AD8BC: You’re right. It takes 12 eggs to make a dozen, 3 feet to make a yard and 9 torture victims to make a fiasco. It’s like reporters were using that damn liberal torture metric system.
hey guys, that’s not *the* peer-to-peer lending site prosper.com. The CEO is Chris Larsen. The proser is this article is Prosper Learning ([www.prosperlearning.com])
At this rate, I highly doubt Prosper will live long. [I instantly hate myself for that bad joke.]
@AD8BC:
That they (the CIA in particular) admit to…
I try not to trust my government unless they’ve given me good reason to do so.
@evslin: The Glengarry leads are for CLOSERS!
Wow, talk about mixed up priorties!
@AD8BC: You mean the United States of America emulated Pol Pot only three times?
Let Freedom Reign! (Imagine my playing “America the Beautiful” on a kazoo here)
@Trai_Dep: And…
Yeah, like a Bush-appointed CIA director testifying to Congress in public over how much torturing of crazy people the United States of America does is the venue I’d bet money on for being one we should trust for honesty…
@tph: It’s all about the Glengarry leads!
[video.aol.com]
@bkpatt: You forgot to blame the employee. And to make sure he showed a receipt.
@cde: the receipt should be contaminated with lead, too
@AD8BC: What would be even more hilarious is if one of your family members would be the so-called fourth victim.
@cde: ARGH! I assumed the employee blaming was understood… I mean after all he was waterboarding, even though that’s not torture.
The receipt is unavailable, as after the waterboarding, they refused to pay the invoice for the “motivation.” They did, however, sue in small claims court and win.
I’m working on the lead tie-in, but this is getting complicated.
@big keytee: First prize is a new Cadillac. Second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is you’re waterboarded.
@Trai_Dep: Ever since gwb wrote that note to Condi, I been thinking – isn’t the phrase “Let Freedom Ring“?
Gitmo!
But how do we blame best buy for this? LOL
You know, it’s kind of funny that we would do something so heinous and awful as waterboarding when our enemies tend to lean toward the light side of torture… you know, like CUTTING PEOPLE’S HEADS OFF.
[www.aliennationreport.com]
Here, if you need a reminder of what real torture is. If you need to remember who the real enemy is.
@AD8BC: I’m not sure who our enemy is, but I know damn good & well who is fighting tooth & nail @ Capitol Hill to destroy our Constitutional rights.
This just goes to show that there’s no such thing as bad press. People have been hearing so much about how bad waterboarding is, but we still ending asking ourselves: how can I get this waterboarding, and what can it do for me?
Or maybe it just shows that not every idiot can find a job in the Bush White House.
Whoever did this, whether they actually forced the guy into waterboarding or not, does not represent the motivational industry. I’m not in that industry, but I’ve used various unique motivational coach services in my career, and the over-riding theme of all of them is, it’s not about increasing sales or decreasing costs. It’s about MOTIVATION, i.e. making people WANT to do more for you. Saying that sales people should work at hard at making more sales as this guy did at breathing is not motivation, not because of the waterboarding part (if it’s true) but because no motivational coach worth their salt would draw a direct connection between motivation and sales. It’s implied, you motivate, and sales increase.
@Jaysyn: I know it doesn’t fit with the “I hate my country!” theme that so many folks seem to live for now days, But for enemy, I’m voting for the guy sawing off and then holding up Daniel Pearle’s head. He makes a strong case.
@AD8BC: Which is why no one is saying the United States of America desecrates corpses. Yet. (Sigh, sad that I have to add that disclaimer).
Torture, on the other hand… USA! Kampuchea – err USA! USA!!
@humphrmi: Also, the message I take away from that exercise is “Being motivated is good and you should be motivated,” and I hope you guys are a little more subtle than that.
Hey, waterboarding isn’t torture… until you’ve tried it.
WTF?! “Everybody was . . . involved and enthusiastic.”
The poor guy was struggling to breathe and yet like sheep the freakin’ coworkers went along with the manager like freakin’ sheep.
Hey, if their current business fails they can always be contracted by the CIA to do “motivational sessions” in East Europe “board rooms”.
why the 6 week wait to file a complaint ?