We do not talk much about abuse in the workplace in America. We feel that we should keep our mouths shut and take it in stride. There are bills to pay and we need to make sure that our children eat. However, working under an abusive employer can end up costing you a lot more than the paycheck you receive. Severe trauma has been demonstrated to cause all kinds of health problems ranging from depression to suicidal behavior. Things that we consider harmless like skipping meals or sleep so we can show up at our jobs actually causes physical damage to the human body. Further, dealing with an abusive employer on a daily basis can cause us to think that we somehow deserve such treatment, that everyone starts at the bottom and that this how one works their way to the top. Nothing can be further from the truth. We should not be following our bosses around like some stupefied horse trying to get a carrot on a stick. Becoming one of your bosses underlings, always going along with everything they say, is harmful to you, your co-workers and even your boss. Recent studies have proven that the best kind of workers are critical of their employers. That is not to say that we should go full Samuel L. Jackson on our employers every time they make mistake, but that we have every right to question our bosses decisions. I set the standard of excellence at one of my old jobs by being vocal about possible abuses or mishaps. Because I was so vocal my company was able not only to improve production and make more money, but they also were able to root out some bad employees who had actually been stealing money from the company for years! So, it is a myth that a good boss wants you to simply be quiet and work. Part of your job is making sure that your company is doing all it can to be productive and abuse is proven to stall production, potentially losing your company money. We cannot be optimally productive unless we are content with our working environment. So, really we are not just helping the worker when we protect them from abuse; we are benefiting our companies and the customers who pay good money for their services, even if the corporations don't want to recognize it. Thus, we should actively pursue a better work experience from out places of employment. It is simple to raise a concern to your boss without causing an argument. Some places even have procedures for this already in place that employees may or may not be aware of. If you think that your boss may be abusing you, but you are not quite sure, a common problem when it comes to reporting abuse, I suggest listening to the stories I present in this episode. Abuse of all kinds tend to follow a specific patter. The abuser generally portrays themself as the end all be all when it comes to knowledge. They paint everyone else in the world, the people who do not hold this special knowledge, as a band of idiots. Abusers will also resort to using loaded language to insult their employees; they will often call their employees lazy or unproductive, even if they are working their fingers to the bone. Abuse often ends up being sexual. The reason for the is simple: controlling a person's sex drive is the ultimate form of control. If you have a person second guessing their sexuality or associating negativity with their sex life, you can manipulate them as you choose. Impulse control functions properly until presented with a traumatic experience, at which point people may develop anxiety, depression and even psychotic breaks. It is simply unacceptable to have people dealing with customers under such duress, and doing so is one of the main causes of altercations in the workplace. Just think of how many employees companies have lost, and how much that has damaged their reputation, simply because they put themselves before their employees. We have to stand up and speak out about workplace abuse. The current laws restricting workplace abuse are vague, which leads to people always believing the boss.