I came across two job-related news items over the weekend that can only be classified as BIZARRE to say the least.

At first, I thought I was reading some satire the likes of which are usually seen on popular sites like The Onion, but to my surprise these were legitimate news stories.

Stories like Employee’s Suit: Company Used Waterboarding To Motivate Workers and Police: Man Gets Shot To Avoid Work.

In the first story, my first thought was that this had to be an international news story. Wrong again!

This little gem comes to us from Salt Lake City, UT where a Supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo 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. Now that’s hard-core sales management!

Sadly, I’m not making this up.

The allegations also claim that the Supervisor in question drew mustaches on employees’ faces, took away their chairs, and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle “because it resulted in increased revenues for the company.”

It remains to be seen whether or not the allegations are true. Interestingly enough are the company’s claims on their website Prosper, Inc. that they “provides executive-level coaching for individuals” and that “our mission is to provide our students with the education and hands-on experiences they need to achieve their personal and professional goals” and “we strive to make the road to personal achievement meaningful, rewarding, and enjoyable.”

I’ll say! Better check to see if your company plans their next team-building exercise there. If so, you might want to call in sick that day.

That brings us to our next story. The second news item of interest is equally ridiculous. A man in Washington state had his friend shoot him in the shoulder so he wouldn’t have to go to work. Specifically, he asked his friend to shoot him so that he could get some time off work and avoid an upcoming drug test.

Nice move buddy.

Police should investigate if the real reason he asked to be shot was to avoid a certain upcoming “team-building exercise” at certain aforementioned company in the West-Northwest.