As an employee, it is one’s responsibility to perform tasks given by the management adequately. However, forcing employees to eat roaches and drink urine simply because of failure of the staff to complete their task is unethical. According to the South China Morning post, managers from a construction firm in China have been jailed for 10 days over the incident of compelling the workers to drink urine and eat roaches. This was solely done due to their failure to not reach sales targets. The Daily Telegraph reports that, “Screenshots have also been published in Chinese media of what was said to be messages from the managers.” According to BBC News articles, “Police in Zunyi county police arrested three managers and they were later sentenced to jail time.”

Moreover, social media posts depict that staff members were also threatened to eat cockroaches if they did not meet targets. In addition to mistreating the employees, a video posted on Chinese social media site Weibo reveals a male employee getting whipped with a belt. The extent of the inhumane action taken against the employee also included, drinking toilet water, vinegar and getting their head shaved. The employees were also not paid for the past two months. They did not raise their voice about this mistreat because they were afraid of not getting paid at all if they quit. Turmoil regarding unfair treatment with employees has become one of the causes of economic growth to slow down. As the South China Morning Post reports, “labour unrest has been growing and reports of ill-treatment of workers have become more common.”