Posted on 06/16/2022 7:47:35 PM PDT by robowombat
25 Employees Injured After Walking Over Hot Coals in Team-Building Exercise Jose Martinez BYJOSE MARTINEZ Jose is a contributing writer for Complex Media. @ZayMarty
Jun 15, 2022
A team-building exercise in Switzerland did not work out as planned when 25 employees suffered burns after walking over a bed of coals that stretched several feet long, New York Post reports.
At least 10 ambulances arrived at a private event on the Au peninsula on Lake Zurich Tuesday night to provide medical treatment, with 13 people transported to a nearby hospital with severe injuries. Police have begun an investigation into the incident and gathered evidence from the site. It’s uncertain if the arrangement of the coals or the way the participants walked over them contributed to their injuries.
The Swiss news outlet Blick reports there were about 150 employees in attendance for the event hosted by the marketing company Goldbach. According to the Kleinreport.ch, Goldbach CEO Michi Frank acknowledged in an internal memo that several members sustained burns after taking part in a “voluntary” team activity. Frank claimed “appropriate preparation” was taken before the participants walked over the coals.
A spokesperson for Goldbach asserts “no one was forced” to participate in the activity.
Live Science points out a number of factors that come into play whenever you try to successfully execute firewalking. It’s important to pick the correct type of charcoal that burns away to gray ash instead of getting too hot, as well as pat down the coals in order to create a more flat surface.
A decade ago, 21 people suffered second and third-degree burns after walking over coals during an event hosted by motivational speaker Tony Robbins in San Jose.
Anybody else remember back in 2009, when 3 people died after a Spiritual Warriors Sweat Lodge Retreat?
This was near Sedona, Arizona. Run by a James Arthur Ray.
Partcipants paid over $9K each to attend the retreat.
They fasted for 36 hours prior to the event.
Temps well over 100’ degrees. F.
Darwin was SO wrong
Good grief.
People who do this routinely have experience at it and know HOW to do it.
People just off the street can’t do it.
I don’t know why anyone would want to do it; but there’s science behind it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7FahK7DO4
I thought that stuff went out of style in the ‘80s
The people responsible for this event need to have their feet held to the fire.
Frankly, I might prefer this to some of the juvenile team-building ‘bare-your-emotions’ crap that goes on now.
And we’ll it should
LOL
“Temps well over 100’ degrees. F”
Hell, that is an average day in the Sonora desert of south Arizona.
Is this satire?
From the article: It’s uncertain if the arrangement of the coals or the way the participants walked over them contributed to their injuries.
The correct preparation is to think for yourself and don’t do dumb stuff.
No, it’s not satire. The coals need to be prepared in a certain way, and people need to walk over them in a certain way, too.
Idiots who arrange an event like this without an expert guiding them are....idiots.
And people who allow themselves to be dared into this, without really understanding it, are idiots, too.
I can attest to this.
Sounds like those 25 aren’t team players.
Only in the summer. The rest of the year is gorgeous.
(Unless you're a liberal planning on moving here from some failed liberal state. In that case-- the weather is AWFUL! 115 degrees every day all year! And we have scorpions and rattlesnakes under every rock! Don't move here!!)
If 77 people didn’t survive, you would think the company would have needed you more than ever. Then again, they would have 77 warm bodies...
That DA in Texas who went after Senator Tom Delay attended one of these cultlike biz retreats...bunch of guys naked in the woods beating on drums and spanking thawed chickens.
This is a microcosm of what is happening in our country. Lemming factor; people no longer think independently.
The daytime temperatures in Phoenix of 105 didn’t feel that bad. But I went walking at night when it was 90 and it felt so oppressive.
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