Woman Claims Son’s Suicide Caused By Pasadena Target Store’s ‘Walk Of Shame’

CBSLA.com) ^

[BenLurkin]

A woman is suing Target, alleging her son committed suicide after being forced to take part in a humiliating disciplinary event in front of co-workers and customers at the Pasadena store where he worked as a cashier.

...

Her son jumped to his death from the roof of the Courtyard Marriott in Monrovia on July 18, three days after he was required by Target management to take part in what the suit calls a “walk of shame.”

According to the complaint, police and store security met Graham Gentles immediately as he arrived for work, and, at the direction of two members of store management, was handcuffed and led before other store employees to an office.

...

He was questioned in the office, then later taken to the police station, according to the lawsuit. However, he was later released and never charged with any crime, according to the complaint.

...

“The walk of shame is a Target policy to purposely cause shame, embarrassment and emotional distress to any Target employee who is suspected of stealing from Target,” the suit states. “The policy consists of employees being arrested and paraded in handcuffs through the Target store in full view of co-workers and customers.”

[ravenwolf]

Maybe the problem is management in the sense that many people who work in retail do it with little previous work experience. They don’t understand the concept of manager and subordinate.

---

Probably so, I believe people should work up to the management position therefore being familiar with all aspects of the business.

[Boogieman]

I knew a guy that worked at a Miller beer warehouse. They had stack of pallets full of beer they were always moving around on forklifts, and inevitably, they would drop some pallets and of course all the beer would be lost.

So they had a certain figure of “breakage” that was expected from them every month, and as long a they didn’t break more than that, the higher ups did not care. So, what these guys did was just be extremely careful all month long, so that they would break as little as possible, and at the end of the month, they rented a truck, bribed the security guard, and just hauled all the rest of the “breakage” quotient off for themselves.

They had so much beer, they would sell half of it tax-free to bars and restaurants, and they still took home 20 cases a month for each of them.