Panda Express is facing a lawsuit from a California employee over an alleged "cult initiation ritual" which involved stripping down to her underwear.
In a Washington Post article (via Fox 40), she said that in 2019 during a "trust-building exercise" at a "self-improvement" class run by Alive Seminars for Panda Express, she was forced to take off her clothes and open up about her vulnerabilities to the rest of the group. Taking place in a room with blacked-out windows, she and others were "berated" by a seminar leader who told them that "they amount to 'nothing.'"
When a male classmate broke down in tears while doing the same exercise, session leaders told the cashier she had to "hug it out" with him while both of them were still undressed.
The cashier claims her manager told her she'd have to take the class in order to be considered for a promotion, at which point she'd been with the company for just under three years at Panda Express in Santa Clarita.
Read more from Fox 40 here.
