Illustrations: Xia Qing/GT

Here's a shocking story. In order to penalize employees who failed to meet performance requirements, a manager of a company based in Southwest China's Guizhou Province asked them to eat earthworms and loaches, a bottom dwelling scavenger fish. The heads of the company on Tuesday were reported to be detained by local police force and sentenced to a 5-day detention. In a bid to push staff members to achieve satisfactory accomplishments, employers, especially in the marketing industry, usually come up with a variety of tricks, including both reward and punishment. It is true that moderate punishment can make one progress. But there should be basic standards of decorum. The extreme ones deeply undermine staff members' self-respect and physical well-being. This will damage a company's image and reputation. To pursue long-term developments, a company should get rid of such toxic company culture because it is detrimental to attract or retain competitive staff.