When Your Boss Is A Bully

One of my beefs is the supervisor or boss who doesn't treat his/her employees well. They scream at employees or intimidate them or threaten them. It is a scene all too common (I have been in one myself previously) and unfortunately, it appears that that happened at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee as well.

There is not much an employee can do in such a situation, unless it crosses into discrimination or criminal behavior. When a state is an at will state, employers can fire an employee for almost any reason. In other words, if you don't like your boss's behavior, the general thinking is, go find a new job. But it gets complicated in an economy such as the one we have today, where it is almost impossible to find a new job, or when the job is your heart's desire. Then what do you do? Like most people, you try to grin and bear it, and hope that it somehow gets better.

It is helpful when there is a superior you can complain to about your boss. In most large corporations, there is a hierarchy, and hopefully the next person up the chain of command isn't your boss's best friend (this does happen). If so, that muddies the water.

But it is bad when there is no one to complain to because your boss owns the company. The buck stops there. It is their way or the highway.

But if the company is a charity or an agency, there might be a board of directors you can complain to, that can then take the steps to make things better. This was the case recently with the Elephant Sanctuary. There is currently a lawsuit going on: One of the co-founders of the Sanctuary, Carol Buckley, was fired, and she sued for, among other things, to get her job back. The board of directors has released its countersuit, along with a number of letters from former employees saying how she intimidated and frightened them.

I applaud the board of directors for taking action. That is the right thing if indeed these allegations are true, and there are plenty of people saying they are true.

Usually these kind of toxic work situations eventually are found out and fixed. But my question--and this is not directed at the Sanctuary board of directors but is a general question--is why does it always take so long to oust an unfortunate boss? Why does there always have to be so much destruction first? That is my wish for working America--that bullies no longer rule the workplace, and these type of situations are corrected more quickly. Eveyone has the right to go to work and be treated respectfully.