Most companies put new hires through some kind of team-building exercise. One key to success: Make sure no one is seriously injured.
A division of Ernst and Young held a retreat for employees at a resort in Colorado. The program included an assortment of fun and games, as well as an open bar.
One of the events: a mock sumo wrestling game in which employees wore inflatable fat suits and tried to tackle each other on a rubber mat.
Employee Katherine Giles was playing the game and was pushed off the mat. She was wearing a helmet, but it slipped off during the fall. Giles hit her head on the carpeted concrete floor and fractured her skull.
Suffering permanent damage, Giles sued the manufacturer of the mock sumo suits, the company that planned the retreat and the resort. The latter two settled out of court, but the case against the manufacturer went to a jury trial.
The company claimed Giles was intoxicated when the accident happened, but that didn’t sway the jury, which awarded her $2 million, Denver’s CBS 4 reports.
