Source: Fresno Bee
April 25, 2006 Author: Pablo Lopez
......"The spankings also were used to increase productivity from its work force,"
The conduct included throwing pies at the losers, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks with a competitor's yard sign"
A former Fresno alarm systems company saleswoman who was spanked by her supervisors while her co-workers watched and jeered wants money for her humiliation.
Alarm One Inc.'s lawyers say the spankings — with a competitor's yard sign — were done in fun to build camaraderie among the sales force and that there was no intent to hurt employees.
Janet Orlando, 53, says she was so embarrassed by her three spankings that she quit her job as field supervisor in February 2003. She's now in Fresno County Superior Court, alleging in a civil trial discrimination, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress.
Alarm One's lawyers say Orlando voluntarily quit after five months at the company and that she was a willing participant in the spankings. They say the practice wasn't discriminatory because supervisors spanked both male and female employees.
A key issue is Orlando's credibility. She has testified that she is a recovering prescription drug addict who has been arrested twice for shoplifting.
Court records say the company's motivational practices began in the Hayward office, where sales teams competed, with the winners poking fun at the losers. The conduct included throwing pies at the losers, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks with a competitor's yard sign.
Hart likened the antics to old-fashion fraternity hazing of eating a gold fish. A harmless act until someone accidentally dies, she said.
"There was no intent to hurt anyone," Hart said. "It was motivation sales antics gone awry."
According to Wagner, sales people who arrived late for a meeting or talked out of turn were subject to a spanking. "The spankings also were used to increase productivity from its work force," he said.
During the spankings, the sales force hooted and shouted lewd comments such as "Bend over, baby" and "You've been a bad girl," according to court documents.
According to [Alarm 1 supervisor Nina Correia], Orlando abruptly quit the company because she was passed over for promotion, not because she was spanked.
Correia initially testified that the spankings were done in fun. But on cross-examination, she conceded that in her pre-trial deposition she didn't agree with the spankings: "That's not my extracurricular activity. I have to work, you know."
She also said in her deposition that the spankings were not a secret from corporate officials.
Mark Keppler, a California State University, Fresno, professor of human resource management, also has testified that the atmosphere at the Alarm One meetings was like that of a strip club. The difference is that strip clubs would not allow physical attacks on its employees, he said.
[S]upervisors who spanked employees weren't suspended or terminated; instead, they received a verbal warning. In comparison, when a female salesperson didn't go to work because her grandfather was gravely ill, she was written up, Keppler said.
Corporate officials stopped the practice of spanking once a female employee was injured, Keppler agreed, but their concern was not sexual harassment. Instead, they were concerned about the company's workers' compensation liability, Keppler said.
