Chinese staff made to slap each other on stage at company’s anniversary celebration
Beauty salon worker says exercise was meant to strengthen team bonds
A beauty salon in eastern China tried to “motivate” its employees by getting them to smack each other in the face at the company’s anniversary celebration, local media reported.
In a video clip that has gone viral since being uploaded to the internet on Sunday, about a dozen women are seen kneeling in pairs on a stage and taking turns to slap each other.
The event in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, was held to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Jinhuayuan Beauty Salon, Caijing magazine reported on its website.
A worker was quoted as saying that the slapping exercise was “meant to strengthen team bonds”.
Several Chinese companies have made the news in recent years for adopting controversial practices in the name of “building teamwork” and “inspiring motivation”.
In 2016, salesmen from Baishan, Jilin province were made to crawl along a busy street after they failed to reach their targets. The same year in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, a company made its new recruits kiss rubbish bins in the street and hug female passers-by to “boost their courage”.
In 2015, interns at a food company in Changzhou, Jiangsu, were forced to drink water from the toilets they had just cleaned, “to make sure they were really clean”. And in Foshan, Guangdong province, fitness trainers at a gym had to run in public clad only in their underwear every day until they managed to boost enrolment numbers.
