This Intel Employee Fell For The Old 'Kick Me' Game, And Now He Wants Revenge
Remember that grade school prank that involved taping a “Kick Me” sign to an unwitting classmate’s back, then howling with laughter as other classmates complied with the request?
Harvey Palacio, an Intel employee at the chipmaker’s Rio Rancho, N.M. facility, isn’t laughing after his co-workers pulled the trick on him last August. Now he’s seeking revenge in a federal lawsuit against Intel, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Intel didn't respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
According to the Associated Press, when Palacio approached Randy Lehman, one of the senior managers at the plant, and asked if there was something on his back, the manager responded by kicking him three times in the rear end. Another co-worker, Chris Zeltinger, kicked Palacio twice when he asked for assistance.
While Palacio’s co-workers thought the prank was funny, he apparenty didn’t appreciate the humor of full-grown adults engaging in a playground game.
"Palacio felt demoralized and assaulted and he began to cry during the drive home. He could not tell his wife because he was so embarrassed and ashamed,” according to court documents quoted by the Associated Press.
Turns out this prank had some serious professional consequences. Intel fired Lehman and Zeltinger for the role in the prank, and both were convicted of petty misdemeanor battery, according to the Associated Press report.
Lehman spent 19 years at Intel and was a manufacturing production technician when he left, according to his LinkedIn profile. That role included responsibility for all aspects of Intel’s wafer production at the Rio Rancho facility.
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