There is a difference between good-natured horseplay and razzing co-workers at work, and on the other side of the big, bold line the areas of criminal levels of hazing, harassment, and assaults that are beyond unacceptable. Care to guess which side of the line the co-workers and supervisors of 18-year-old George Cheese were at leading up to his April 9th, 2015 suicide? Here, let me offer up some examples of what this guy went through during his tenure as an apprentice at an Audi shop in England:
- Journal entry: “My boss told me to hurry up and hang myself because I’m a useless piece of shit.”
- “(Co-worker) tied me up, pressure-washed me. Thought it was hilarious. I couldn’t stand up afterwards. He called me a pussy and I had to walk home soaking wet.”
- Co-workers had locked him in a cage at the garage by force, doused him in a flammable liquid and set him on fire.
- Returned home after shifts bruised all over his body from beatings received at work.
That isn’t good natured ribbing. That isn’t horseplay. That’s the description of a shop full of assholes that need to be fired. Forget beat, forget “disciplined”, fired. It’d be one thing to tie the dude up on his birthday and celebrate as he’s wheeled about the shop on a chair…that’s good natured. Pressure-washing someone who is bound is sadistic. And I don’t know about you, but good-natured or not, the first person who sets me on fire is going to be the first person I would attempt to grievously harm by any means necessary. No job is worth risking your mental health to the point that you need anti-depressants just to make it through the day. Cheese should’ve left the shop with both middle fingers in the air in full display. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out.
So is there a responsible party that pushed Cheese over the edge? Apparently not. The official coroner’s report, released on May 25th, admitted that the behavior of some of the co-workers was “unacceptable”, but that nobody in the Audi shop was at fault for Cheese’s death, and that there was no definitive proof that any one individual’s actions contributed to his suicide. I call bullshit. You throw someone into a locker, douse them and light them up and you want to say that won’t contribute to an altered well-being? That being tied down and pressure-washed isn’t enough to consider the shop, or individuals within the shop, somewhat culpable?
Supervisors, shift leaders, this is what you need to be watching out for. Know the difference between good times and good jokes and what is over the line. An 18-year-old from the U.K. is dead because of it.
Wow. Just…Wow. Not one of them apparently tried to stop it? That’s almost as bad as the hazing.
I don’t understand why someone like that kills themselves instead of those doing the bodily harm . They are lucky .
The kid was just 18, it was most likelly his first job, and possibly his dream job too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got the idea stuck i his head that this was what the rest of his life was going to be, so yeah, I can see why he took the way out he took. I would hope that the police will still investigate, and prosecute the bastards and store responsible. And the store is just as responsible as the assholes doing the bullying, they have a duty of care towards their staff
hmmmm reminds me of a factory I worked at around the time I was about to be married.. the guys I worked with, previously even called friends, got it into their heads that they would tie me up and paint certain parts of my anatomy with bearing blue cos that would apparently be funny. It went very quickly from a joke to 4 guys trying to forcibly hold me down to perform said act – which I was making abundantly clear was NOT going to happen and would result in c£nts getting their heads kicked in. On my side I had steel toecaps on and 2 engineers hammers. Things got very ugly very quickly – glad to say nothing happened to me in the end but only after one co-worker had 3 broken fingers and lost a few teeth when I kicked him away while he was trying to retrain me. Another guy got bruising and also a broken finger courtesy of a well placed hammer blow or two. Like most factorys this place had a zero tolerance rule about fighting and violence. We got broken up by security and the police were called. I was meant to be facing charges until I explained why I’d got so violent ( not a thing I’m proud of at all but sometimes you need to do what you do). The cops, security and bosses looked at each other and in the end there were no charges or loss of employment for anyone, but a few friendships ended that day. The scariest part was seeing well meaning horseplay slip into mindless violence which could only be countered by more violence.
‘Worst thing I saw when I was working in a dealership as a car-hop at a young age was an old mechanic who got his nut by hooking up a Model A coil to a car in his stall to shock newbies.
‘Craziest was as I was talking to a service writer when he opened a [paper] stapler and slammed it into his leg, stapling his pant leg to his leg to freak me out. ‘Turns out he had a wooden leg.
Even if they aren’t charged with driving him to suicide – that journal list escalated from being a jerk to aggravated assault. At least that’s what they would call it here in Georgia – elsewhere that might be classified as assault with a deadly weapon, or even attempted murder. Somebody deserves jail time over that – if not everybody who knew about that and didn’t call police. That is beyond hazing and into felony charges.
It can suck to be a kid, too bad he didn’t feel like he could either retaliate in a serious effective way or just walk, sometimes it’s nice to be an older guy not so concerned with fitting in. Anybody at my last job who had been there 10+ years and thought I needed some harassing when I started got themselves a visit in the parking lot after work where magically they seemed to be a lot less confident.
I, for one, have a no tolerance attitude toward this type of horseshit. I see it happening, it freaking stops. What happened to that young man was nothing but sheer torture and if I were the young mans Dad? What a miserable existence the perpetrators would be facing. Eating foods through a straw for the rest of your life is no way to live!
And If I were on the receiving end of it? After the first incident, bitches be fucked up. Torch me on fire? You are done. Payback is a true motherf@#ker.
Audi drivers are assholes, why would you expect their mechanics to be any less of one?
I grew up north of Boston …If some one tried that shit it would not have gone well with anyone I know – We stood up for the weak in high school +had cops called because actions —–both passive and aggressive
@ 63 I have never been physically abused going back to my teens @ a job.
I’ve had a few ‘ tough’ guys and dumb bastards ( yes I mean low IQ) w/no sense of humor that had to talk a bit over the years w/ no success….
In Ca I worked at Newport Yachts (small sail boats ) in Costa Mesa in the
late 70’s – the ‘stockroom ‘ guy was a 300 + lb muscle head .
As the newbee I had to swamp out the bathroom –the big guy tried to say
I had to ask permission to use ‘ his broom ‘ to clean up all the paper towels the rest of the place including him had trouble getting into a trash barrel ….I weighed about 150 wet those days and in no uncertain terms let him know that I’d use any broom I wanted to clean up after lazy shits like him.
At the time I was working w/ a Viet Vet ex-marine that weighed less than me
He had my back ……very quite man w/ stories of in country action that would make most pee their pants god bless him + god speed ..
We shared a bud one lunch time that had three guys still high the next morning but I digress ..
Large garbage bag, acetylene, oxygen, long extension cord, steel wool = payback.