Boiler Rooms

In my securities reading, they're discussing boiler rooms and some examples of high pressure sales tactics. This excerpt from the case Varljen v. H.J. Meyers (1998) is particularly appalling:

"As negative reinforcement, for example, the managers subjected brokers who did not meet target sales to a ritual called the 'walk of shame,' wherein the broker was required to walk around the floor of the brokerage office while other brokers threw objects at him or her. In addition, brokers were subjected to the 'ten or ten' rule, meaning that they were required to make at least ten successful cold calls to sell __ stock, or to stay in the office until ten o'clock at night."

That's horrible! Could you imagine walking around a law firm and being pelted with objects because you didn't meet a billable hours target for the day or something like that? And the case is from 1998 - it's not that long ago! That must have been one toxic work atmosphere. *shudder*