Tied to a chair and a cake in the face: The regular humiliation ceremony at the US giant company
A former Comcast employee is suing the company, claiming that at the branch where he worked in Connecticut, there was a monthly ritual where the employee with the lowest sales figures was tied to a chair in the back office and had a whipped cream cake thrown in their face by colleagues. After sending a message to the regional manager about the matter and receiving no response, he resigned for fear of being the next target.
A former retail employee of Comcast under the Xfinity brand is suing the company, claiming that at the branch where he worked in Connecticut, there was a regular monthly practice in which the employee with the lowest sales figures was tied to a chair in the back office and a whipped cream cake was thrown in their face by colleagues, under the direction of the branch manager. According to the lawsuit filed in a Connecticut court, the manager, Sally Peterson, was the one who planned the ceremony and ordered its execution, with the events sometimes being recorded on video.
The plaintiff, David Figueroa, says he was hired as a sales consultant at the Plainville, Connecticut branch in early February and resigned less than a month later. According to him, a whiteboard hung in the back office that ranked employees by performance and marked who had already had a cake thrown in their face or who was slated for it. Figueroa claims he saw a colleague named Ty who was "honored" by having a cake thrown at him due to weak sales figures, and was later exposed to another video in which a cake was also thrown at the face of the assistant sales manager after she received a low score in a customer satisfaction survey.
He claims he reached out with his concerns to the regional manager, Miranda Cody, to whom he sent a text message, and received no response. Figueroa notes that since then he felt a constant fear that he himself would become the next target, and that this was the main reason for his resignation. The lawsuit includes a claim of negligent supervision, and Comcast is accused of being aware or should have been aware of the practice and failing to act to stop it. Figueroa is demanding, among other things, financial compensation, back pay, and punitive damages, with the claim amount standing at more than $15,000.
Comcast stated that the company has "zero tolerance for harassment, humiliation, or any behavior that undermines a respectful and safe workplace," and that it does not agree with the allegations and the way the alleged events were characterized, and will respond through the legal process. The company did not state whether the alleged manager is still employed in its ranks.
Comcast is an American media and technology giant, founded in 1964, employing nearly 180,000 people worldwide and traded on NASDAQ. Among its areas of operation is Xfinity, a home internet, cable, and mobile brand, which is considered the largest cable internet provider in the USA. In this store, the humiliation ceremony allegedly took place.
