"About a dozen Burger King marketing-department workers burned their feet when they walked over white-hot coals at a meeting intended to promote bonding," the Associated Press reported over the weekend. Somehow I missed this story until now, but I have to take note of it.

Apparently Burger King brought more than 100 employees to a Florida resort for this exercise. One woman was taken to the emergency room, and others sat in wheelchairs the next day, as they'd suffered first- and second-degree burns.

Did this promote bonding? Perhaps. A Burger King vice president told the AP: "It made you feel a sense of empowerment, and that you can accomplish anything.'' Now, I'm self-employed, and so more or less immune to forced bonding rituals, so maybe this is out of my area of expertise. But to me, that VP's assessment sure sounds like a whopper.