We've seen it play out in movies but as fiction. Bosses we simply can't stand that make it hard for us to work every day.
Like in the movie "Horrible Bosses" when employees are fed up with their bosses and scheme a plot to get rid of their bosses.
But what may be fiction is reality to many across the country including in South Florida. Just last December a fight between a boss and her employee turned violent after investigators say Guadalupe Hernandez shot at her boss several times outside of their office building. Nobody was hurt.
Tomeka Napper doesn't condone resorting to violence with a boss, but she says she was the victim of a horrible boss.
“You need to be able to respect people’s space. And understand that you never know what someone is going through at home,” Napper said.
She said years ago working as an entry level data clerk employee for a company in South Florida she had a boss that would curse out employees on any given day.
And one day, Napper became the victim of her supervisor's verbal assault.
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“I had all my wisdom teeth pulled out at one time. So, I had to go back to work after having that done,” she says. But things soon got worse for Napper. She said,“She was cursing out the older lady, then it turned to me. And I was like, look, I don’t want to do this, you’re not going to talk to me like that. It just got very confrontational.”
Napper decided to see her supervisor's boss about the confrontation, but in in the end it may have cost her, her job. “He just nodded to me, told me he was going to handle it. I went back to do my job after I calmed down. I went back to work the next day and I was fired.”
Napper was fired and not only hurt but surprised. “I did not expect to be fired and I was upset. And I was gathering my stuff and I went back to catch the bus and I was like whatever.”
Adult psychiatrist Delvena Thomas says it's important to take the high road when dealing with a boss that gives you a hard time.
“You should bring to work, values or morals that you should stand behind and don’t allow anyone to compromise those things.”
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Thomas says if you have trouble eating and sleeping due to a horrible boss, you should try and meet with your boss and let them know how you feel, but be strategic.
“Maybe that person has no idea that they are a bad boss or a difficult boss. You have to give them the opportunity and give them the chance to change.”
If that doesn't work and you're still feeling stressed, Thomas says be patient and check into your company's policies. See if they have an Employee Assistance Program that will help in defusing the situation at work.
“If they still continue to do the same thing, you have involve someone else, you have to involve that person’s supervisor, you have to get them involved.”
Tomeka Napper didn't get a chance earlier in her career to take advantage of some of some of those tips, but she learned from it. She now runs her own business and knows the importance of treating employees like she would want to be treated.
She said, “To make sure I treat people with respect, even though I may not agree with them or even when I have to tell them when I don’t like something they’ve done.”
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