The thing about serial workplace bullies is that they never pick a fair fight. They don’t go after the senior leader with connections or the employee with a union rep.

They go after the person nobody will defend, and they do it so methodically that by the time anyone notices, the target has already quit and the narrative has been rewritten.

A freelancer watched this happen in real time at a nonprofit over two years. The boss she reported to always had one person in her sights, and the selection criteria was always the same: whoever was the most isolated, the newest, or the least protected.

So when the freelancer finally had the guts to push back, she became the next person to go.

The ex-employee begins to wonder what she could do to finally break this toxic cycle.

Keep reading for the full story.

My old boss bullied people one at a time, and every time someone quit she just moved to the next victim. Nobody stopped her.

I freelanced for this nonprofit for like two years and honestly it took me embarrassingly long to see how messed up their playbook was.

This employee sums up her main complaint about being employed there.

So the woman I reported to, she always had one person she was going after. Like there was always a target, and once that person finally broke and quit or got pushed out, she just moved onto the next one.

The more she reflects on it, the more she picks up on a pattern.

And looking back it was so obviously never random. It was always whoever was the most isolated, like the junior hire or the remote contractor, or even at one point lol someone who was literally off on sick leave.

And it was the same playbook essentially. She’d make you look stupid in meetings, screw around with your pay, and literally break employment law, which is incredibly insane.

This boss would always pick what she considered “easy targets”

Nobody really did anything because the people she picked were the people with ZERO leverage, no one above her willing to step in.

I was the one dumb enough to actually push back lol. And shocker, they soon “moved in another direction” lol.

She thinks this woman should have been fired a long time ago, but she’s starting to feel powerless.

Anyway, this person’s still there. And that’s ticking me off.

Also, I was working from another country so there’s basically nothing I can do legally even if I wanted to, and meanwhile she’s just sat there still doing the exact same thing to some new person right now as I type this.

She starts brainstorming how to finally hold this boss accountable.

So I guess what I’m actually asking, what the heck can I do?

I was thinking of writing to the board but will that even do anything? I just don’t wanna waste my time.

Oh also, a couple other people have said that they’d write something too, so it wouldn’t be just me.

The sooner this workplace can wise up and get rid of this bully, the better.

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Reddit is sure to have an idea or two.

The “safety in numbers” philosophy definitely applies here.

This disgruntled employee regrets not taking a chance to speak up.

This commenter prefers to take a more subtle approach.

That being said, banding together with other employees could be an effective strategy to finally bring about some justice.

This toxic boss still has her job precisely because every person she’s targeted has done the same thing: absorbed the damage, left, and moved on.

That’s the brilliance of picking the most vulnerable person on the team. They don’t have the energy, the leverage, or the connections to fight back after they’re already out.

But this scorned employee is ready to do whatever it takes to topple this oppressive system.

A letter to the board breaks that silence, and doing it collectively breaks it in a way that’s impossible to write off as one person’s grudge.

This boss has been untouchable for far too long, but that’s all about to change.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person whose colleague expected them to help pay for 11 elaborate birthday cakes they never agreed to buy.