Now here's an excellent way to build trust

During the course of my illustrious career, I took part in any number of leadership development and team building exercises.

So, yes, I have fallen into a colleague's arms as part of a "trust fall." (And, no, I didn't enjoy the experience.)

I've also sat back-to-back with a complete stranger where we were supposed to reveal a deep, dark secret to each other. (I didn't, and I don't recall him doing so, either. We had a pleasant, less than memorable chat.)

I've worked a grownup craft table with a bunch of teammates, using Tinker Toys to try and assemble a prototype of a helicopter. (We were not successful.)

I've been part of a crew in an Escape Room, trying our darnedest to beat the crew in the Escape Room next door. (Unfortunately, as we figured out after they'd made their escape a few seconds before us, our crew was composed of analytic types who had to think everything through to the last possibility, while the other guys were all doers who just kept throwing random shit at the problem. And, guess what? It worked. Lesson learned, I guess.)

I've been on a team charged with creating and delivering a company cheer. (Too bad our team turned out to be a bunch of old lefties with nary a cheerleader among us. The only cheer I could recall from my youth was Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win. Friends, we lost the competition.)

I've been in plenty of silly, stupid, and embarrassing situations in the name of corporate whatever. But I've never been asked to take off my clothing as part of a "trust-building" exercise.

But that apparently did happen to one young woman in California:

Jennifer Spargifiore, 23, filed the lawsuit last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Panda Express and Alive Seminars and Coaching Academy, a self-improvement consulting outfit that led the exercise, are named in the suit as defendants.

According to the filing, Spargifiore worked for Panda Express from Aug. 10, 2016 to July 15, 2019, primarily in the northern L.A. County suburb of Santa Clarita.

She said the Alive seminars were often "a prerequisite to promotion," so much so that attendees were required to provide their work ID numbers so seminar fees "could be debited directly from their Panda Express employee accounts." (Source: MSN)

Wait! What? 

Employees were actually expected to PAY for this?

Even back in the days when I was a Big Boy waitress, our training was free. As was the advice on lipstick, eyeshadow, and how to wear your name tag. (Well above your breast so that no sly patron could ask "What's the other one named?")

At Big Boy's, I was not, of course, looking for a promotion. Just a summer job.

For Spargifiore:

The dayslong sessions, however, were "bizarre and quickly devolved into psychological abuse," the lawsuit said.

During one session on July 13, 2019, Spargifiore was pressured into an “'exercise' wherein she was forced to strip down to her underwear under the guise of 'trust-building,'” according to the complaint.

She "stripped almost naked in front of strangers and co-workers – was extremely uncomfortable but pressed on because she knew it was her only chance at a promotion," the lawsuit said. "Meanwhile, Alive Seminars staff were openly ogling the women in their state of undress, smiling, and laughing."

Later in this exercise, Spargifiore and a male participant, also down to his underwear, were allegedly forced to stand in front of the group to "hug it out."

Oh my. OH MY.

Hard to imagine anything much worse happening under the guise of helping employees prepare for promotion. I know this is a Panda Express, and not a big old straight-laced corporation with a bunch of MBA's gunning for the C-Suite. Still, this is pretty outrageous. And when you consider how young Spargifiore is/was at the time...

Good for her for walking out of the training session, which - was there ever any doubt? - resulted in her being terminated by Panda Express.

Panda is claiming that they didn't know what Alive was up to, that no one is required to participate to get promoted, etc. Which suggests their HR team didn't do all that good a job with their due diligence before introducing their employees to this outfit and/or encouraging them along a dubious "self-improvement" track that they needed to go out of pocket for. 

Alive has issued some blah-blah about respect and dignity. There's plenty of typical corporate training BS on their website

Learning must be intriguing, applicable to real-world situations,​ based on outcome-based competencies, and generative of practical solutions to immediate problems and long-term plans. Our seminars incorporate all of these components and so much more. They focus on employee engagement and leadership development among all participants. They are experiential, interactive provocative and fun.

Personally, I can't think of any real-world situations, other than working as a pole-dancer at a place like the Bada-Bing, that requires stripping. So just what might an out-come based competency be there?  As for "experiential, interactive provocative and fun"? Not for Ms. Spargifiore, or anyone else I can think of. 

From what I can gather, it looks like Alive works with many in the Spanish-speaking immigrant communities - people working hard to better themselves. 

I hope this tawdry situation was a one off. Some rogue employees who thought they could have a bit of experiential, provocative fun at someone else's expenses. And I hope they all get fired. 

I'm hoping that Jennifer Spargifiore is in for a big payday for herself. I couldn't find her on Linkedin in, but I'm hoping she's gone on to greater things. 

Lock me up in an Escape Room any old day. (Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh...)