can your boss legally verbally abuse you on the job in front of co-workers?

Question

my husband is a truck driver, his boss cursed him like a dog, becuase the boss was mad at my husbands brother, who also works for the company.

Answer 1

Your boss is allowed to reprimand. But if you feel that your boss is verbally abusing you buy a notebook and keep a record of everything he has said that is abusive and when, what time, and who he said it in front of. Then after a few times of him doing this, maybe a month or so, go to HR and file a complaint against him with COPIES of your notes, keep the original for yourself. Make sure that there is a formal complaint logged and that you sign it. If they don't do anything about it then you can pursue legal action with an attorney.

Or you can just start looking for a job where you won't be abused.

Answer 2

No, file a complaint with the Human Resources department, your supervisor, and/or his boss.

To make a long story short, verbal abuse occurs because the abuser is in a reality where he feels he must overpower his victim to feel good about himself. Often he was abused as a child. Or perhaps both victim and victimizer are influenced by cultural beliefs which support the man dominating and controlling the woman. Often the victim is confused because she wants an equal relationship with the male. She wants to feel empathy, respect, compassion and acceptance from him. She may believe she can elicit this behavior from him by modeling it - by treating him as she wants him to treat her. Unfortunately, from his reality, he sees this as a weakness on her part and will, most often, only escalate his abuse because scoring a "win" makes him feel good about himself. He suffers low self esteem and the abusive behaviors help him cover up the part of himself he doesn't like. He blames his faults on the victim, thereby feeling the abuse is justified.

Answer 3

No Especially if they used foul language. Your coworkers are witnesses and have probably been talked to the same way. Read the workers rights poster that is supposed to be posted on the wall somewhere, Usually in a break room. If it continues call an attorney or a government agency.

Answer 4

"verbally abuse you" is subjective, the law is not. You will need to specify exactly how did he/she abused you.

What he/she did may be unethical and likely against company policy but not necessarily illegal.

[edited to add a comment on Justme's answer]

I want to point out that although an interesting analysis interesting from a psychological point of view, that article has nothing to do with the legality of the action. Note that not once was the word 'illegal' used.

Answer 5

first off legally or illegally u are not verbally abusing me and i'll say this i lost a job because i didn't let a supervisor talk down to me because you a boss and im not so it really goes back to how much pride do you have in yourself people need to know the name of the job is rgis i won' t say what state

Answer 6

Your boss can do what he wants as can HR (they can do worse). Whether it is in front of co-workers or not, it isn't right, but reporting him will make him hate you more. Why not just talk to him and work it out with him personally instead of talking about him to HR?

Answer 7

Of course not, whether it's in front of your co-workers or not doesn't make a difference. File a complaint, and hopefully your witnesses will help you too.

Answer 8

No report him to Human Resources. Even if your boss humiliates you infront of co-workers it is considered abuse and is not tolerated. Report him/her.

Answer 9

No. My rule is, anything that makes you uncomfortable and/or interferes with your job performance is, at best, harrassment. You should try reporting his behavior to his superiors and, if that doesn't work, file a lawsuit.

Answer 10

Sounds like harrassment to me. That's rude and unfair. File a complaint.