I wouldn’t be the first or the last to commit suicide because of bullies. I’m intelligent. Talented. Get along well everywhere but in the office. My boss, a freak who was fired from a job 20 years ago for molesting dead bodies in a funeral home likes to send me out to accident scenes (I’m a journalist) to take body photos. He’s sick. It’s bad enough I have to go to fatalities, fires, murders, shootings and brains on the street but when I come back all they do is laugh and joke about it. None of them have to go. They sit around and joke and make fun of whoever isn’t in the room at the time.
The entire newsroom is sick. None of the higher ups believe me and none of my peers will talk because they’re afraid of losing their jobs. The bullying comes from other bosses who want me to quit – and I won’t. The men pretty much protect each other, paw their girlfriends in the office (one supervisor is sleeping with a woman he supervises); laugh and denigrate any photos or stories of or about fat people, black people, old people (they’re all in their 20’s). One of them is a psycho-nut job. His car got blocked in one day and he raged and swore and tore his car up looking for a hunting knife to slash the tires of the guy who sort of blocked him in. He wasn’t truly blocked – he just had to back up and go over a low curb or to another entry. Human Resources lies. They say they talked to people and they didn’t. They say people who have left the job (about 25 now in a year), all had positive things to say. They didn’t. I have them on tape with the real reasons they left. Pretty much that world sucks. The thing is, if you guys knew what went on it newsrooms, the jokes made about death and tragedy, you’d all want to kill yourselves. Journalists are NOT your friends. Especially in this newsroom. I’m debating what to do. I can’t afford to lose my job and benefits, but staying makes me suicidal. Of all the people there – most weigh in excess of 400 pounds – fat is a protective shield and it shows. The only way to continue to work there is to gain weight or commit suicide. What to do? Quit or stay? Either way it’s killing me.