De Rosa

Aug 30, 2023

Today at 06:00 am Share SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The employee letout a guttural scream as the darts struck his back. Two menlowered his stiffened body to the floor. A crowd of co-workers howled with laughter and cheered asthe account executive, still prostrate, managed to praise theweapon that felled him - a Taser electroshock gun manufacturedby his company, Axon Enterprise Inc. "Oh, that's good," the Axon employee, Ross Blank, heavedinto a microphone. Blank later posted a video on his LinkedIn account of thecompany's January event, held at a Phoenix resort. "Taking onemore for the team is Bad Assery," long-time executive SteveTuttle commented on the post. "Love it!" Axon, a corporation with a market capitalization of $15billion, has a dominant position in its niche of electroshockweapons and body camera technology for law enforcement. Itdescribes its mission as a noble one: saving lives. Itsbest-known product is the Taser, the device it developed totemporarily immobilize criminal suspects with darts that deliverelectric current, providing police with an alternative tofirearms. Axon says that more than 18,000 law enforcementagencies in 107 countries use Tasers. Less well-known is the all-in corporate culture at Axon,which has tested employees' commitment and fealty in unusualways - through measures that some embraced wholeheartedly butothers felt were extreme and potentially dangerous. Shawn Gorman, a lawyer who worked at Axon until 2019, saidthe company had a high-pressure culture of loyalty, unlikeanything he has seen in nearly two decades of practice. "It was truly toxic," he said. The tasing exercise struck several workplace expertsconsulted by Reuters as an outlandish and unnecessary hazard.It's "unhealthy at best, dangerous at worst," said JenniferChatman, a professor studying workplace culture at the HaasSchool of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. "This is on the fringe for sure." In statements to Reuters, Axon disputed that stafftasings are hazardous. The company and its chief executiveofficer, Rick Smith, said employees are not pressured intoanything. "We strongly object to any implication that Axon pressuresemployees to engage in activities against their will," saidAndrea James, the company's chief communications officer. James defended Axon's culture, describing it as "acollaborative environment of mission-driven individuals who joinforces to deliver an extraordinarily profound impact onsociety." Axon said that staff tasings have never drawn formalcomplaints and are conducted with "the utmost focus on bothpsychological and physical safety." Blank said he never feltpressured by Axon. Tuttle did not respond to requests forcomment. Staff tasings, known as "exposures," are corporate ritualsat Axon. Sometimes they involve mid-career employees like Blank,but often they are used to initiate interns or new recruits intoAxon's all-in culture, according to numerous interviews andvideos seen by Reuters. "Tase, Tase, Tase," staffers chanted inunison in a March 2019 recording as a target stood in the lineof fire. "It looks like a scene from ancient Rome, gladiator-style,"said Valencia Gibson, a former international support manager atAxon. She was one of several former staffers to compare tasings,frequently held in the tiered atrium at Axon's Scottsdaleheadquarters, to the Colosseum's spectacles. Gibson said therewas pressure in general for staff to be tased but that she wasable to decline due to pregnancy. Besides hosting Taser exposures, company leaders have urgedstaff to "make things permanent" by getting tattoos of Axonlogos on their bodies and to bet part of their pay on a stockplan most advantageous to ensconced, highly placed executives,according to interviews and Axon materials reviewed by Reuters. Axon's leaders want to know "who is in for the long haul," asenior employee told a co-worker considering the stock plan in2018 text messages that were reviewed by Reuters. The senioremployee, who was helping to implement the plan, added that suchtests of loyalty are "totally wrong but it is what it is." For this story, Reuters reviewed approximately 100 Axonrecords, including PowerPoint presentations, internalannouncements, meeting notes and text messages, as well as 24exposure videos made either by Axon or unofficially by staffersfrom 2016 through 2023. Some videos portray multiple individualsbeing tased. Reuters also interviewed 63 current and former Axonemployees, including nine former executives. Most peopleinterviewed requested anonymity, saying they feared harm totheir careers or had signed non-disclosure agreements at Axon,sometimes to obtain severance pay. Axon employed about 2,800full-time staff at the end of 2022, according to its latestannual report. Many ex-employees interviewed by Reuters described Axon as aboys' club that was unwelcoming or even offensive to women. OneHR staffer's 2019 PowerPoint presentation to an executive oninclusion efforts - reviewed by Reuters - specificallycriticized Axon's "‘Bro' culture" and "lack of diversity in topleadership." Men historically have dominated the upper ranks, with 129 inmanagement and financial roles compared with 46 women, accordingto 2020 data Axon submitted in a public procurement. A dozen people told Reuters that leaders sometimes usedobscene or sexual terms for women or discriminated against them.Josh Isner, now Axon's second in command, referred to one of thecompany's few female executives as the "Vagina," according toseveral people who either heard the slur or were told about itsoon afterward, as well as text exchanges alluding to thecomments. Axon said Isner made no such remark. Isner said in astatement, "The defamatory language attributed to me by adisgruntled former employee is emotionally motivated and acomplete fabrication." The company has "zero tolerance" for workplacediscrimination or harassment and objects to "inflammatoryallegations regarding our environment as it relates to women,"James said. "Axon supports and celebrates a gender-diverse workforce,"she said, adding that 40% of the highest-level executive team isfemale, and that the company has promoted men and women equallythis year. Fifteen people, about half of whom oversaw human-resourcesand legal work for Axon, said they felt company leaderssidelined those who didn't show sufficient loyalty or commitmentto the all-in credo - by, for instance, declining the stockprogram or failing to be tased. They said they believed thoseemployees received less desirable assignments, were excludedfrom business meetings, or, in some cases, were forced fromtheir jobs. Not everyone objected to the company's distinctive culture.About a third of those interviewed by Reuters said they felt nopressure to undergo exposures or eagerly signed up. James said Reuters glossed over positive employee reviews,while relying on sources that were "not credible." She pointedto a confidential, company-funded survey from June in which 87%of some 700 U.S.-based staffers rated Axon as "a great place towork." Claims that employees felt sidelined are "not rooted infact," Axon said. Reuters was unable to obtain a copy of thefull survey results. The apparent light-heartedness and the zaniness of thetasing exercise - described previously in a 2018 story in TheNew Yorker about Axon's role in the police body-camera business- might suggest that staff exposures at most induce temporarypain or discomfort. Tasings, however, can be fatal. More than 1,000 people have died in the United Statesfollowing incidents in which police used Axon's Tasers, oftenalong with other types of force, a Reuters examination in 2017found. No one with whom Reuters spoke was aware of deaths orlawsuits stemming from tasings of Axon staff. Over the years,however, Axon has faced over 120 external lawsuits allegingwrongful death after the weapon's use, according to Reutersreporting. Axon keeps legal settlements confidential. But the companysaid in February in its annual report filed with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission that no product claim after2014 has exceeded its $5 million in self-insurance. Axon hasfaced fewer lawsuits since 2009, the year it introduced a newTaser model with a lower charge. In the wake of a study showingTaser pulses could interfere with the rhythms of the humanheart, the company that year revised its recommendations onwhere to aim the device. Previously, users were told to aim atthe torso; since 2009, Axon has encouraged users to shoot forthe back or below the chest. Videos of employee tasings seen by Reuters show that dartswere aimed at the back and thigh area under highly controlledconditions, in which subjects wore safety glasses and spottersclutched their arms as they fell to a mat. Even so, workers havefainted, cried, bled or suffered other pain, witnesses or formerhuman-resources staff said. "I saw people cry real bad," said one long-time employee whohas since left the company. Ann Rosenthal, a senior advisor to the U.S. OccupationalSafety and Health Administration (OSHA) until 2022, said Axon'stasing of staff could violate a provision of the federalOccupational Safety and Health Act, which mandates thatworkplaces be free of recognized hazards that are "likely tocause death or serious physical harm." An OSHA spokesperson said the administration has no ongoinginvestigations of Axon, nor any findings from completedinvestigations. It declined further comment on Axon. The maincommission overseeing workplace safety in Arizona, where Axon isbased, declined to comment. The company told Reuters that it objected to any suggestionthat its workplace practices "are illegal or dangerous." In 2022, Axon published a blog post aimed at "debunking someof the most common myths" about its weapons. There, the companyargues that its Tasers are "one of the most studied, safe andeffective means of quickly stopping a threat," causing musclesto flex by employing "the same technology you see inoff-the-shelf muscle stimulators used for rehab and muscletherapy." Axon itself has issued multiple pages of safety warnings topolice about the risks of using the technology. Even in thecontrolled setting of the Axon workplace, the company requiresexposure candidates to sign a waiver, forfeiting their right tosue Axon for any exposure-related injury. The waiver warns of the potential for death at least 12times, according to a 2019 copy. Repeated electrical stimuli"can induce seizure in some people, which may result in death orserious injury," the waiver states. "Certainly this is a hazard, and they're clearly aware it'sa hazard because they're warning employees that they could getkilled," said Rosenthal, who until 2018 was the LaborDepartment's top lawyer on workplace safety. She and two other experts said the pressure workers describeis similar to that experienced by initiates of gangs or somefraternities. "It sounds like a hazing process as much as anything else,"Rosenthal said. SIGMA CHI BROTHERS While a rising sophomore at Harvard in the 1980s, RickSmith, the future Axon CEO, attended a fraternity rush week at afriend's school. "There was something about being in the company of men, andmen alone, that enabled us to speak openly and honestly aboutwhat was on our minds," he wrote years later in an op-ed for thenews site Observer.com. In 1989, Smith wrote, he started a chapter of the Sigma Chifraternity at Harvard despite the university's refusal - boththen and now - to recognize such single-gender groups on thegrounds that they are discriminatory. The fraternity fostered what Smith described in BostonMagazine as "lasting friendships." As of February, three of thecompany's eight board members, including Smith, were alumni ofHarvard's Sigma Chi chapter. Since then, three with no Sigma Chiassociation have been added, bringing the board to 11. Axon President Josh Isner, who is not a board member, alsois a former member of the Harvard fraternity. The company said Smith's articles had no bearing on Axon. "My comments on the value of private spaces for men andwomen to adjust to college life is very separate from how I viewdiversity in the workplace," Smith said. "I learn from peoplewho are different from me, who bring different life experiences,and I am proud of our investments to build a diverse team." Smith said Isner's fraternity affiliation was not a factorin Isner's position at the company and described him as "aninstrumental leader at Axon for more than a decade." Michael Church, Sigma Chi's executive director, said that"throughout the years Rick Smith has demonstrated a thoroughappreciation for the benefits of a fraternal experience." Hedirected further questions to Axon. From the time Smith co-founded the business with his brotherin 1993, he put his body on the line. A recording from thatyear, posted on the company website, shows Smith standing in aninflatable pool of water and taking a hit from an early Taser.Smith falls down and grunts, with his arms and legs flailing forabout 10 seconds. Around 1998, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Hans Marrero joinedthe company, helping to attract law enforcement customers. Anold video on YouTube, which Axon replayed for police at an eventthis year, billed Marrero as "one of the toughest men alive" anddisplayed him handily resisting punches and chokeholds. He "can take pain," a description of the video on YouTubereads, "but can he handle a taser?" After collapsing from the weapon, Marrero says the Taser hada greater effect than a grenade that once hit him: It "knockedme on my ass," making him "lay there, like a little baby." Marrero toured the United States in a camper van"demonstrating" the Taser, Smith said in a separate promotionalvideo for Axon. The demos around 1999 marked a turning point insales to police, Smith has said, and set up the company to earn$8.4 million from an initial public offering in 2001. Asked to comment in a brief phone call, Marrero said, "I'mnot interested, buddy." Smith, now 53, set a macho tone in the workplace, interviewsand records show. For instance, Smith at times mocked maleemployees by calling them a "pussy," according to two writtenexchanges seen by Reuters. In a meeting held in recent yearswith more than a dozen employees including women, he used thesame term to refer to a male staffer who wouldn't do as heasked, an attendee said. According to the 2019 presentation by a human resourcesstaffer, Smith stated his concern in a company meeting thatdiversity and inclusion efforts meant that Axon "won't know howto ‘have fun.'" Smith and other executives and staffers took excursions tostrip clubs, six former employees said and text messages showed.Some said police joined on occasion, and staff who did notattend said they felt excluded. In Las Vegas, Smith traveled around with executives in arented stretched truck known as "The Beast," according to aphoto and caption posted on the limousine company's social mediaaccount in May 2022. The burnt-orange-colored vehicle, examinedby a Reuters reporter, has a stripper pole inside it. In statements to Reuters, the company drew a distinctionbetween employees' personal and professional undertakings. "Wedo not take customers or employees to strip clubs for anycompany events," Axon said. "What people choose to do on theirown personal time is something we respect their privacy to do.We have firm expectations that nothing inappropriate comes intothe workplace either directly or indirectly." Both male and female staffers said taking time for familywas discouraged or penalized at Axon. Three women and two mensaid in interviews that Axon forced them out after they soughtor took parental leave in recent years. One of them, ValenciaGibson, said she received a layoff notice in 2017 a few monthsbefore she had a baby. "It's not morally, ethically right," Gibson said, addingthat she did not pursue legal action because she didn't want toput herself through the stress. One of the men, however, filed an Equal EmploymentOpportunity complaint in 2022, seen by Reuters, which he said ispending. Among other things, the person alleged sexism figuredin Axon's decision to terminate him after he filed afamily-leave request to bond with his newborn. In its statements to Reuters, Axon disputed the EqualEmployment Opportunity claim, adding that more than 100employees have benefited from its parental leave policies thisyear. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declined tocomment, citing federal law that barred it from releasinginformation on such complaints. Axon described its leave policies - up to 20 weeks paid forwomen and 10 weeks for men - as "family-friendly" and"industry-leading" in a 2021 corporate responsibility report. Incontracts including a recent $7 million deal with Los Angelesfor police-car cameras, it agreed not to discriminate againstany person on the basis of factors such as gender, pregnancy orchildbirth. Smith said he "deeply" embraces diversity at Axon, notingthe company wants a balance between "professionalism andpersonality" while believing "everyone should bring their fullselves to work every day and feel welcomed as unique humanbeings." 'YOUNG AND IMPRESSIONABLE' To be tased, in the Axon lexicon, is to "ride thelightning." Six former employees including two executives told Reutersthat Axon tased staff strategically around new-hire orientations- a contention that Axon called "false." In a 2019 workplace survey seen by Reuters, exposures weredescribed as "Intern Cohort Engagement Activities." An intern'stasing in 2018 elicited uproarious screams from his peers, avideo showed. "You're a man's kind of man!" one person shouted. "I felt like there definitely was a lot of pressure there,"a different former intern told Reuters, comparing the experienceto fraternity rush. "You're part of the team or the brotherhoodif you did it." He said he could not breathe when he was shot,and he had to leave work early to recover. Every time he heard aTaser discharge "from that point on, I'd kind of jump a littlebit in my chair." Around 2009, the company began hiring cohorts of around 15college graduates to join a "leadership development program," atwo-year paid role that gave them a chance at a longer-term job. A former employee said she understood the focus oninitiating young people this way: "One, they're young andimpressionable, and two, start them early." "Everybody tells their (tasing) stories," said the person,who herself took a hit from the darts. "They try to make youthink it's cool." In an Axon video taken at a January 2022 company conference,a new employee states on camera while awaiting a tasing, "Thisis day three of the job, so we'll see how it goes." The footageshows the staffer, clad in a superhero outfit from the animatedfilm series "The Incredibles," squinting and smiling as thedarts hit her back. Others took exposures shirtless or in a sports bra, to avoidhaving their clothes punctured by darts or stained with blood,said workers, including former intern Keara Berlin. "It just seems like if the goal really is for yourself toexperience the product that you're working on that it should beas safe as possible and private," not "in a big group of peopleand taking your shirt off," said Berlin, now 24. She said themajority of her 2019 cohort was tased in one session lasting atleast 45 minutes, although she said she had no interest and toldcolleagues as an excuse that she was not appropriately dressed. Some interns and young staffers told Reuters they wanted tobe tased to satisfy their curiosity or gain confidence in theproduct. Some said they appreciated the camaraderie. They alsoliked the mementos for stepping up to the challenge:commemorative coins adorned with Axon insignia. Similar coinsare given to military personnel or police officers for serviceachievements. Rylan Bennigson, an intern last summer, said his tasing was"100% voluntary." He called it "a personal decision and acelebration of what we had done in the internship." Since at least 2005, the company has required exposurevolunteers to waive their rights to sue, copies of these formsarchived from Axon's old website show. By 2011, Axon began towarn more prominently in the waivers that the weapons "Can causedeath or serious injury," the forms show. Axon said the waiver aimed "to truly ensure that ouremployees know and understand their risks and consider themprior to proceeding." Employees have no obligation to undergotasing for career advancement, Axon said, and doing so can be inprivate if they so choose. Smith said in the 2018 New Yorker piece that he no longerwatched exposures, because, to him, they were like smellingtequila after a hangover. He told Reuters in his statement thattasings are "unpleasant." But he defended the practice, sayingthat most of the company's law enforcement customers require oroffer their officers tasing opportunities as a way to develop"deeper understanding of the technology, as well as an empathyfor people on the receiving end." "We offer this same experience to our employees," Smithsaid. Reuters confirmed that some police agencies, including thosein Sacramento and San Jose, California, do offer the option. TheLos Angeles Police Department requires a Taser-like experience,with exceptions for those with medical risks. The departmentattaches wires to officers rather than firing the weapon's dartsinto their backs, avoiding treatment costs and risks associatedwith having an open wound, a captain told Reuters. In his statement to Reuters, Smith said: "There is zeropressure for anyone to participate (in tasings) and we makesignificant effort to ensure people understand they are notexpected to do it. Most of our board and many of our most seniorexecutives have chosen not to experience Taser devices." Axon said employee exposures occurred just a few times ayear. They are "part of Axon's culture because we see theimportance in standing behind and in front of our products." LOYALTY ETCHED IN INK In October 2021, in a tweet, CEO Smith flexed to display anAxon logo and lightning bolts tattooed on his bicep, celebratingstock options he earned. "Wow," former chief of staff Mihir Shah commented. "Allin!!!" Shah declined to comment and deleted his tweet during aphone call with Reuters in July. Smith and other executives in recent years got inked duringexcursions to Starlight Tattoo at the Mandalay Bay Resort andCasino in Las Vegas, according to Smith's public statements,employee text messages and three former staffers. Starlight's owner, Mario Barth, said he was traveling andcould not immediately comment. After getting Axon-themed tattoos, some executives proddedtheir colleagues to follow suit, said four former employees.Three said they personally resisted getting tattoos despiterepeated, sometimes discomfiting entreaties from companyleaders. "The execs who got tattoos were considered to be the oneswho were all in," said one of the former employees. "It was likebeing branded." "If you didn't get it - you were questioned," the personsaid. Axon invited tattoo artists to internal conferences thisyear and last, company videos show. "Willing to make thingspermanent?" an internal company message asked employees. Themessage directed staff to an on-site artist in a foyer in aScottsdale conference center. Two of the former employees said women were encouraged toobtain tattoos after company officials expressed concern aboutonly having male employees with Axon ink. "They kept asking some of the girls to get tattoos," onesaid. "I was like, no thanks. It's going to fuel the boys-clubfire." Axon said the vast majority of staff had no such ink anddisputed that employees felt pressure to receive tattoos. Smithcalled the assertion "simply ridiculous," adding, "Tattoos havenever come up in hiring discussions nor promotion discussions,and I would come down hard on anyone who tried to make an issueof it." Some staffers embraced the offer. One video produced byAxon, posted on its website in November 2022, showed a salesdirector at a company conference getting a Taser tattoo, acircle with a lightning bolt at the center, on his bicep. The sales director told Reuters he was inspired by Axon'sgoal of cutting officer-involved shootings and signed up with asmany as 40 of his peers. The tattoo was a "funny, big cultural thing," said theperson, who declined to be named, saying he did not want to beassociated with an article critical of Axon. "I do not regret iteven a little bit." "I am proud of my tattoo," Axon's Chief Legal Officer IsaiahFields said in a statement to Reuters. "It symbolizes the smallpart I have played in Axon's mission and the positive impact wehave made on the world." The stock plan was another measure of employee commitment -and it led to angst and regrets among some senior staff. Around 2018, following a large stock award to Smith,investors told Axon they wanted to see broader employee buy-into a stock program instead of "highly concentrated plans amongsenior management," the company said in securities filings. More than 500 U.S. staffers with salaries of at least$100,000 were asked to suspend from 5% to as much as half theirpay, according to a 2018 securities filing. In return, over nineyears, employees could get up to triple that amount in chunks ofstock each time the board certified that Axon had met rigorousfinancial thresholds. If Axon did not reach any targets by the time an employeequit or was fired, the staffer would get nothing. Thosedismissed without cause would earn no stock or a capped amount. Axon did not specifically comment on the stock plan for thisstory, other than to point out that the majority of qualifyingemployees were capped at committing up to 10% of their earnings. In a 2019 press release, Axon trumpeted that "more than 300employees" agreed to allocate $75 million of their compensationto the plan, choosing "to align their pay directly with valuecreation for shareholders." This May, Smith told investors on a Zoom video call that"nearly 100" ultimately became millionaires from the program. Herolled up his sleeve to show a tattoo to mark milestones in theform of filled-in bars. "I have my financial scorecard proudly on my body," he said.He said around a dozen other employees got the same tattoo. The biggest winners by far from the plan, which was reviewedby Reuters, have been top-level executives. Isner alone reapedmore than $73 million in vested stock resulting from the targetsAxon hit, a securities filing last year shows. Isner did not respond to a request for comment on the plan. Six former employees told Reuters they had lost betweenseveral hundred dollars and tens of thousands of dollars,although one of them was able to recoup the money upon exitingthe company. Wayne Guay, an expert on stock compensation at the WhartonSchool of the University of Pennsylvania, said the plan wasaggressive in its targets and covered an unusually long period -more risky for younger, often highly mobile employees. "The founder is going to be there til the end for sure, butrank-and-file employees?" said Guay. "I'm just not sure." In 2018 messages to an Axon official involved in the stockplan, one young employee expressed misgivings. The official toldthe staffer to "take a chance" on the plan or risk fallingbehind "with your pants down." A different lower-level executive told Reuters he acceded towhat he felt was "immense pressure" to sign up. "I knew that the people that I reported to would see whetherI was committing to be a company man for the next nine years,"said the executive, who has since departed Axon. SHOT 62 TIMES Axon's all-in culture wasn't just aimed at eager interns andambitious young executives. In a December 2019 video created by Axon, then-trainingmanager Lamar Cousins claimed that he had been tased around 62times. Cousins did not respond to emails requesting comment. A company-wide announcement summoned employees to a ballroomduring an internal conference at the Scottsdale Westin resort inJanuary 2022. "Exposures are happening AGAIN in (room) Herberger3AB! Grab front row to see your fellow employees take a ride! "it read. Videos show 50 or more people of varying ages rallyingaround to watch spectacles combining elements of playfulness andprovocation. High-level executives joined in the antics. In the December2019 video, then-Chief Revenue Officer Isner asked Kevin De RosaJr, a strapping employee in his 30s, if he had been tased duringhis three years at Axon. De Rosa said he hadn't. "What?" Isner replied. "Are you kidding?" Isner then turnedto the camera and said with a smirk, "I think a lot less ofhim." Moments later, De Rosa lined up and was shot with a Taser. "Big tree fall hard," Isner quipped to a laughing crowd, amongthem a manager who waved a cutout of CEO Smith's face. De Rosabellowed as current flowed through his body. De Rosa declined to comment. Gibson, the former international support manager, disputedAxon's statement that exposures are held to improveunderstanding of the product. It is "more about a bro code," she said. "This has nothingto do with sales. This has nothing to do with understanding aclient or a customer... They're just doing this for fun. Andthat's off-putting." Gorman, the former Axon lawyer, said he "vividly" remembersan executive asking him if he was going to be tased. "I thought he was joking around," he said, but "every timethere was an exposure, it was like, did you sign up? When areyou going to sign up? You're going to do it, right?" Gorman resisted, saying he was concerned by reports ofpeople involuntarily urinating or defecating as they took a hit. He soon felt he did not belong at Axon. "You're not part of the culture unless you do it," he said. (Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Scottsdale, Arizona; Additionalreporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Julie Marquis) Share