It’s a question CEOs ask me frequently: how do other leaders engage and motivate employees? What can be learned? Well, in this teachable moment, it’s worst practices at its best.
At Changzhi Zhangze Rural Commercial Bank, poor performance earned these eight employees a whack…literally. Do you mean spanked? Are you serious? Dead serious. If you were sitting in this bank’s employee training program, that’s exactly what happened.
I was catching up on my Geoff Colvin fan club reading, and came across this, which mentally, I don’t even know how to compartmentalize. About a month ago, eight Chinese bank employees got spanked for poor performance. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video until yesterday – I just couldn’t believe it was true. But as we are shown on a daily basis, truth is stranger than fiction.
According to Colvin’s piece, employees were made to stand in front of 200 coworkers and confess why they had fallen short: “I did not coordinate with my team,” for example, “I lacked courage.” Then the trainer, wielding a large, flat stick shouted “Get your butts ready!” and walked down the line whacking each one, hard. He turned back and repeated the process a total of four times. After, he cut the women’s hair and shaved the men’s heads.
Apparently, the trainer says its standard practice, but this time, two bank executives were suspended by regulators. Hmmm, curious…
#EmployeeMotivationNOT! #CouldBeWorse? #BadBosses
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