We’ve all been victims of the ol’ office prank - particularly if you work at rova HQ.
Whether it's a horn under the chair, a scare from around the corner, or just a classic fake spider, we've seen them all around here, or at least, we thought we had, until now.
A story out of the US takes things to a whole new level of 'not cool bro' after a supervisor allegedly preyed on an employee's deepest phobia. A woman who used to work at a bank called Truist has filed a lawsuit claiming emotional and psychological harm after her boss put a Chucky doll (yes, that terrifying little dude from the horror movies) on her chair.
Debra Jones says the prank caused her post-traumatic stress, and her supervisor did it after she confessed at an earlier work event that she was seriously phobic of dolls. Not to mention, it happened during her final week of training for her new role..
Just thinking about this gives me the heebie-jeebies, because as someone who HATES dolls, birds, AND clowns, anything relating to any of those would send me into an absolute spiral of panic.
In the lawsuit, Debra alleged her boss deliberately used knowledge of her fears to frighten her, and then laughed when she reacted to the doll, which resulted in a "severe mental health crisis".
She said she had been living with several conditions at the time, including major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, and an autoimmune illness. Court filings have suggested the prank flared her existing health struggles, ultimately leading to a PTSD diagnosis.
After the prank, Debra said she had to take two months of medical leave. When she came back to work, she was relocated to another office with a new manager, but things didn't improve.
She said her co-workers mocked her, and management didn't hold up their end of the bargain with agreed-upon adjustments to working hours so she could get treatment for her PTSD.
Unsurprisingly, Debra ended up resigning, and now she's pushing for a jury trial.
As someone who feels personally victimised by the Chucky franchise, I'm on team #justiceforDebra.
