China tea shop in hot water after ‘funny’ video of staff wearing paper handcuffs backfires
Employees filmed with signs around necks outlining their ‘crimes’ in the workplace
A leading Chinese tea shop chain got into hot water for creating a video it hoped would amuse internet users, but which instead attracted widespread criticism for being disrespectful to its employees.
The controversy arose from a clip released by the brand Good Me on social media earlier this month, featuring staff admitting to mistakes they had made at work, as reported by the Southern Metropolis News.
In the video, workers in uniforms had their heads lowered and were “handcuffed” with cardboard tea cup holders.
Hanging around the necks of some were cardboard signs stating things such as “the crime of forgetting to put a straw in the cup”, “the crime of overturning tea buckets”, and “the crime of not sticking on an expiration date label”.
One worker wore a larger cardboard sign around his neck that read: “I am guilty of not putting in a straw, not putting a lid on, and not adding nuts.”