Comcast store punished low sales by smashing pies in workers’ faces, lawsuit claims

诉讼称康卡斯特（Comcast）门店通过将奶油派砸在员工脸上来惩罚销售业绩不佳者

A lawsuit against Comcast’s cable division alleges that a store manager humiliated the lowest performing salesperson each month with a strange ritual in which a cream pie was smashed into the employee’s face. The lawsuit claims the store manager took videos of the assaults and ordered employees to participate in the assaults and record their own videos. 针对康卡斯特有线电视部门的一项诉讼指控称，该门店的一位经理每月都会通过一种奇怪的仪式羞辱业绩最差的销售人员，即把奶油派砸在员工脸上。诉讼称，该店经理拍摄了这些袭击过程，并命令员工参与袭击并录制自己的视频。

A Comcast store in Plainville, Connecticut, “had a policy that the highest-ranked Retail Sales Consultant for the prior month was instructed by his or her supervisor—Ms. Peterson, the Comcast Store manager—to tie the lowest-ranked sales consultant for the prior month to a chair in the back office and thereafter assault that person by violently smashing a cream pie in their face,” the complaint alleged. 诉状称，位于康涅狄格州普莱恩维尔（Plainville）的一家康卡斯特门店“有一项政策，即上个月排名最高的零售销售顾问会受到其主管——康卡斯特门店经理彼得森（Ms. Peterson）女士的指示，将上个月排名最低的销售顾问绑在后台办公室的椅子上，然后通过猛烈地将奶油派砸在对方脸上来袭击该员工。”

Plaintiff David Figueroa’s lawsuit said he was hired as a retail sales consultant on February 2, 2026, and was supervised by store manager Sully Fuentes Peterson. Figueroa alleges that Peterson “designed and implemented” the pie-in-face ritual to meet goals related to sales and positive responses in customer surveys. 原告大卫·菲格罗亚（David Figueroa）的诉讼称，他于2026年2月2日被聘为零售销售顾问，并由门店经理萨利·富恩特斯·彼得森（Sully Fuentes Peterson）管理。菲格罗亚指控彼得森“设计并实施”了这种“砸派”仪式，以实现与销售额和客户满意度调查相关的目标。

“Defendant did not inform the Plaintiff prior to his acceptance of Defendant’s offer of employment that the Comcast Store has a policy of subjecting Retail Sales Consultants to public assaults by co-workers—at the direction of Ms. Peterson, the store manager—for the purpose of increasing Defendant’s sales and profitability,” the lawsuit said. 诉讼称：“被告在原告接受其工作邀请之前，并未告知原告该康卡斯特门店有一项政策，即为了提高被告的销售额和利润，在门店经理彼得森女士的指示下，让零售销售顾问遭受同事的公开袭击。”

Comcast was negligent, lawsuit alleges

诉讼指控康卡斯特存在疏忽

Figueroa resigned on February 27, and he alleges it was a constructive discharge. The lawsuit says the defendant, Comcast, was negligent because it “reasonably should have known” about the store management’s policies and that the policies could harm employees. Comcast “failed to properly supervise the Comcast Store’s management team,” allowing store management to humiliate employees “for the purpose of promoting the Defendant’s revenues and profits,” the lawsuit alleged. 菲格罗亚于2月27日辞职，他声称这是一次“建设性解雇”（即因工作环境恶劣被迫辞职）。诉讼称，被告康卡斯特存在疏忽，因为它“理应知道”门店管理层的政策，并且这些政策可能会伤害员工。诉讼指控康卡斯特“未能妥善监管康卡斯特门店的管理团队”，允许门店管理层“为了促进被告的收入和利润”而羞辱员工。

Comcast is likely to dispute the negligence claim and may dispute at least some of the factual allegations. Comcast provided a statement to Ars today in which it said it disagrees with the complaint, but did not provide any details. Comcast also did not say whether it still employs the manager. 康卡斯特可能会对疏忽指控提出异议，并可能对部分事实指控提出质疑。康卡斯特今天向《Ars Technica》发表声明称，不同意该诉状的内容，但未提供任何细节。康卡斯特也没有说明是否仍聘用该经理。

“The Company has zero tolerance for harassment, humiliation, or any behavior that compromises a respectful and safe workplace,” Comcast said in the statement provided to Ars. “This matter is in litigation so we will not comment on the specific allegations, other than to say that we disagree with the claims in the complaint and its characterization of the alleged events, and intend to fully respond through the legal process.” 康卡斯特在提供给《Ars》的声明中表示：“公司对骚扰、羞辱或任何损害尊重和安全工作环境的行为采取零容忍态度。此事正在诉讼中，因此我们不会对具体指控发表评论，只能说我们不同意诉状中的主张及其对所涉事件的定性，并打算通过法律程序做出全面回应。”

Figueroa is seeking compensatory damages for “past and future economic losses” and for emotional distress. The complaint was filed on July 9 in a Connecticut superior court and was described in articles published yesterday by Law360 and The Desk. 菲格罗亚正在寻求针对“过去和未来的经济损失”以及精神痛苦的补偿性赔偿。该诉状于7月9日在康涅狄格州高等法院提交，Law360和The Desk昨日发表的文章对此进行了报道。

Peterson maintained a chart in the back office that ranked store sales staff and “identified the employees who either had been recently assaulted or were scheduled to be assaulted in this way,” the lawsuit said. The complaint includes a photo of what is said to be the chart, which includes people’s first names followed by a month and a “pie face” emoji. 诉讼称，彼得森在后台办公室保留了一张图表，对门店销售人员进行排名，并“标明了最近被袭击或计划以这种方式被袭击的员工”。诉状中包含了一张据称是该图表的照片，上面列出了员工的名字，后面跟着月份和一个“砸派”表情符号。

“An objective, reasonable person in Plaintiff’s position would have felt compelled to resign his employment as a result of this work atmosphere that Defendant—through its employees, servants, agents—created,” the lawsuit said. “As a result of the pervasive, repeated, and ongoing threats of violence—and actual violence inflicted on co-workers not meeting sales goals—Plaintiff resigned his position with Defendant, resulting in his constructive discharge from Defendant’s employment.” 诉讼称：“任何处于原告位置的客观、理性的人，都会因为被告——通过其员工、仆人和代理人——所营造的这种工作氛围而感到被迫辞职。由于这种普遍、重复且持续的暴力威胁，以及对未达到销售目标的同事施加的实际暴力，原告辞去了被告的职务，导致其被‘建设性解雇’。”

“Assaults were videotaped”

“袭击过程被录像”

As the case moves forward, the court could be shown video evidence of alleged pie assaults. The lawsuit claims the “assaults were videotaped by Ms. Peterson,” that she “ordered her staff to participate in these assaults and to video them,” and that Figueroa himself “witnessed and videotaped a co-worker, Ty, being tied-up and assaulted by a co-worker in the backroom of the Comcast Store.” 随着案件的推进，法院可能会看到涉嫌砸派袭击的视频证据。诉讼声称“袭击过程由彼得森女士录像”，她“命令员工参与这些袭击并进行录像”，且菲格罗亚本人“目睹并录制了一名同事Ty在康卡斯特门店后台被另一名同事捆绑并袭击的过程”。

“Ms. Peterson ordered, was present for, and videotaped this assault, as did the Plaintiff and other co-workers,” the lawsuit said. “The co-worker who struck Ty in the face while Ty was tied-up had better sales results than Ty and, therefore, Ms. Peterson ordered him to assault his poorer performing co-worker, in front of his peers.” 诉讼称：“彼得森女士下令、在场并录制了这次袭击，原告和其他同事也参与了录制。在Ty被绑住时打他脸的同事销售业绩比Ty好，因此彼得森女士命令他在同事面前袭击业绩较差的同事。”

The lawsuit alleges that in another incident, an assistant sales manager named Jania was assaulted with a pie because she “received a poor survey score from a customer. The Plaintiff viewed a video of Jania being assaulted on a co-worker’s phone.” 诉讼还指控在另一起事件中，一位名叫Jania的助理销售经理因为“收到了客户的差评”而被砸派袭击。原告在一位同事的手机上观看了Jania被袭击的视频。

Figueroa’s lawsuit said that on February 27, he called Comcast regional manager Maranda Cody to inform her about the pie assaults and tell her that he did not feel comfortable continuing to work at the store. Cody instructed Figueroa to send her a text message memorializing his concerns and reasons for wanting to resign, the lawsuit said. Figueroa said he did not receive a response to the text message or his complaints, and went ahead with his resignation. 菲格罗亚的诉讼称，2月27日，他致电康卡斯特区域经理马兰达·科迪（Maranda Cody），告知她有关砸派袭击的事情，并表示他觉得无法继续在该店工作。诉讼称，科迪指示菲格罗亚给她发短信，记录下他的担忧和辞职原因。菲格罗亚表示，他没有收到对短信或投诉的回复，随后便辞职了。