Wah lau, this workplace story in China is really next-level toxic—miss KPI never mind, but instead of writing a standard warning letter or performance review, this boss made his staff do physical punishments like a BMT recruit!

It all happened in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, where a financial consultant named Ms. Yang was working for a loan assistance agency, making over 200 cold calls a day just to hit her daily targets. When she fell short of her aggressive sales quota, her supervisor, Mr. Zhang, enforced a strict company “penalty menu.

Missing a metric meant choosing between two options: pay a 50 yuan (approx. S$9) fine per incomplete task, or perform 100 deep squats. Because Ms. Yang missed two targets that day, her punishment doubled to either paying 100 yuan or doing 200 squats.

Looking at her tight bank balance, Ms. Yang chose to save her hard-earned money and started squatting right there in the office. To prevent staff from cutting corners, employees were required to record video proof across the office building and send the files directly to the manager. Ms. Yang filmed herself as video proof like a tragic fitness vlogger. She later suspected the firm was intentionally setting impossible daily quotas to force staff to resign voluntarily, saving them from paying severance.

When “Tahan” Goes Horribly Wrong

By the next morning, her legs had turned to complete jello. She could barely stand, let alone walk, but wanting to save money on medical expenses, she decided to just tahan (endure) the excruciating pain.

For five agonizing days, she struggled through her normal routine. Then, disaster struck: her urine turned a terrifying dark reddish-brown, resembling a cup of strong Teh-O Peng. Realizing something was dangerously wrong, she rushed to the hospital emergency room.

Medical tests revealed that her creatine kinase (CK) levels—an enzyme that signals muscle breakdown—had exploded past 16,000 U/L, compared to a normal healthy range of around 20 to 200 U/L. The doctors diagnosed her with severe rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous medical condition where damaged muscle tissue breaks down rapidly, releasing toxic myoglobin into the bloodstream that can quickly trigger acute kidney failure.

The Boss Plays Tai Chi

After spending over S$265 (approx. 1,400 yuan) out of pocket just to save her own life, a traumatized Ms. Yang promptly submitted her resignation. She requested 15,000 yuan (approx. S$2,800) from the company to cover her medical bills, lost wages, and recovery expenses.

Instead of taking responsibility, Mr. Zhang played major tai chi. On a local TV news segment covering the incident, he openly admitted on camera that forcing physical punishments broke labor regulations, but casually dismissed her claim, telling her to go ahead and sue the company if she wanted money. Unwilling to let the matter slide, Ms. Yang reported the firm to the local labor oversight authorities, where Mr. Zhang faces potential administrative detention of up to 15 days for imposing illegal corporal punishment.

Beyond Hangzhou: The Wild World of Extreme Corporate Penalties

Ms. Yang’s experience is far from an isolated incident. Extreme corporal punishment and public shaming practices under the guise of “building employee resilience” or “gamified performance tracking” have repeatedly surfaced:

Location	Company Type	The Punishment	Consequences
Chengdu	Financial Services	Forced underperforming staff to eat ultra-spicy “death chillies.	Two female employees were hospitalized with acute stomach cramps and internal inflammation.
Guizhou	General Business	Forced a team of employees to crawl on all fours down a public city street at night.	Management claimed it was a “voluntary” team-bonding game penalty after police investigated.
Guangzhou	Tech Enterprise	Enforced a minimum target of 180,000 steps per month per employee.	Salary was deducted directly for every missing step below the daily average.
Henan	Property Management	Imposed a mandatory body-weight formula based on height.	Workers over 10% of their “standard target weight” were docked 500 yuan (S$95) per month until they slimmed down.
Guangzhou	Educational Institutions	Forced staff to lie flat on the office floor and chant slogans.	Employees were required to praise the CEO as he walked past down the corridor.

Under standard labor laws, employers are strictly prohibited from imposing physical punishment, fines, personal shaming, or restrictions on personal freedom.

Moral of the story: next time your boss asks you to “stretch your potential” or “take one for the team” at work, make sure he doesn’t mean your actual leg muscles!

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