A 45-year-old woman left two jobs in one year, not because of the job but because of the boss. At a warehouse, her supervisor screamed obscenities and threw objects across the floor. At a doctor's receptionist desk, the office manager called female staff degrading slurs, slammed doors, and screamed so hard her face turned red. She even told teen employees as young as 16 that they wouldn’t get a job anywhere else. That’s a textbook intimidation tactic to keep them trapped.Her story, which she shared anonymously on Reddit, resonated with hundreds of people who shared similar experiences.So is this the new normal? Or are we just finally talking about something that has always been there?The figures behind the noiseThis isn’t just an anecdote, the data backs it up. The 2024 Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey finds that 32.3% of American workers, or approximately 52.2 million people, report being bullied directly at work. If you also count bystanders to bullying (but not the direct target), that number jumps to almost 75 million Americans.And who is doing the bullying? In most cases, it's the person in charge. 55% of workplace bullies hold boss-level positions, according to the same WBI survey. In terms of accountability, targets pay the higher price by far. Bullied employees are more than 62% likely to lose their jobs after being targeted, while perpetrators face negative consequences at less than half that rate.The WBI survey also found that 69% of respondents recognize a “trickle-down” effect, disrespect normalized in public life spilling over into how people behave at work. In short, a culture that is permissive of aggression outside the office is likely to be permissive of it inside it as well.What the research says about screaming bossesThe human toll of abusive supervision has been studied for decades. In fact, according to Bennett J. Tepper’s study published in the Academy of Management Journal, employees with abusive supervisors are far more likely to quit their jobs. For those who remain, the toll is high: less satisfaction with work, less satisfaction with life, more psychological distress, and greater conflict between work and family life.Image Credits: Google Gemini| This is what a workplace bullying epidemic looks like from the inside.Tepper’s research also found that abusive supervisors have a ripple effect that spreads beyond the individual employee. And the stress doesn’t end at work. It follows people home, straining their personal relationships and mental health long after the workday is over. There's a clear pattern: when a boss yells, everyone suffers.Young employees are particularly vulnerableWhat is more disturbing from the Reddit post is the fact that managers have been threatening and manipulating 16-year-olds. It is not tough management to tell a 16-year-old she will never get another job. It is coercive control.The disadvantage here is especially acute for young and entry-level workers. They often cannot afford to walk away. They are still learning who they are professionally, so they are more likely to believe it when a boss tells them that they are incompetent or worthless. And they are far less likely to know their rights or that they have any.That’s something to keep an eye on as Gen Z increasingly enters the workforce. A generation that grew up with a heightened awareness of mental health and toxic behavior is now confronting head-on a management culture that has not necessarily kept up.Why so many bosses get away with itThe unpalatable reality is that it’s not illegal to be a terrible boss in most U.S. states unless the abuse is connected to a protected characteristic such as race, sex, age or religion. Screaming, belittling and throwing things at employees can easily go unnoticed by HR if deployed indiscriminately.The WBI data also finds that 15% of employers take steps to eliminate bullying. The others ignore it, enable it, or quietly hope the targeted employee goes away.And a lot of people do leave like the woman on that Reddit post. She left twice because she could. Millions of people don't have that option.Image Credits: Google Gemini| 52 million workers know this feeling. Most never say a word.What you can do if this is your realityIf your supervisor is volatile and you are working in that environment, you are not overreacting. Your nervous system is responding to an actual threat. Here's how to start:Document everything. Dates, times, language, witnesses. This is important if you escalate later.Know your HR rights. Yelling is not necessarily illegal, but harassment based on gender, race, or age is, and many of these cases blur that line.Contact the EEOC. If you believe there is discrimination involved, contact the EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) at eeoc.gov.Reach out to the Workplace Bullying Institute at workplacebullying.org.Just go and talk to somebody. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a trusted friend, a therapist or a union rep; isolation is what abusive bosses count on.The bottom lineScreaming, belittling and intimidating employees is not leadership. It never was. But it’s been tolerated long enough as a personality quirk or “just how some managers are.” The data, the research, and the thousands of shared experiences online are telling a different story; workplace abuse is widespread, it causes real harm, and it is driving people out of jobs at an alarming rate.The woman who quit two jobs in a year was not weak. She saw something poisonous and decided to shield herself. That’s not a failure. That’s precisely how more workplaces should be built to make it possible for everyone.