[LIGHTER SIDE] Unusual hiring process ends in crushed bones

Getting a job can be a crushing experience – just ask Spaniard Cilo Almansa.  The young jobseeker found herself literally crushed as she fought it out for a sales role with other candidates.

In what can only be described as a series of recruitment war games, Almansa had to compete in a series of games as part of a selection process for cleaning products company EcoLine – including having to stand on chairs  and have others try to push them off. It was during one of these games that Almansa was badly injured.

Almansa told Spanish media that the candidates were divided into groups and told to stand at opposite sides of a large meeting room. There was a €50 note in the middle of the room and the group were told whoever grabbed it first could keep it.

"He threw it on the ground and it was like an avalanche," Almansa told El Mundo. "Even if I’d kept completely still I would have been dragged along."

Trampled by the crowd, Almansa was left with a crushed vertebra and bruises to her head and shoulder.

“I’ve never felt so much pain in my life,” she said. “Everyone got a fright because I just couldn’t get up. All I remember after was that they called an ambulance to take me to the hospital.”

She was hospitalised for two days and had to wear an orthopaedic corset for two months.

While Almansa was given a part-time contract with Ecoline following the incident, she was fired after a month when her bosses told her she had not passed her trial.

She is now suing the company for hazing and physical injuries.