“People Are Afraid Of Him” – Former Cuomo Aide Says She’s “Still In Therapy” From “Beyond Toxic” Work Environment

A seemingly routine Twitter Q&A involving a candidate running for Manhattan Borough President is making headlines after the (female)  longtime Democrat revealed that working for Gov Andrew Cuomo was by far the “most toxic” job she had ever had.

Lindsey Boylan  worked for Cuomo’s administration from 2015 to 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile. She added that working as a server at a local Friendly’s back when she was a teenager was “an infinitely more respectful environment”, even when customers stiffed her on tips, or behaved in untoward ways.

When she worked for the governor, Boylan said, staffers were generally “deathly afraid of him”, calling him “a total asshole surrounded by enablers”.

Boylan continued: “I’ve had many jobs. Waitressing at Friendly’s as a teenager was an infinitely more respectful environment. Even when I had bad customers who tipped poorly.”

But let’s back up a step: In an age where politicians with national profile have been held accountable by former employees (remember all those stories anointing Sen. Amy Klobuchar as “the worst boss on Capitol Hill”?). If Cuomo is truly so terrible, then why haven’t more of Boylan’s colleagues spoken up?

Lindsey Boylan

The answer: They have been cowed into silence. “If people weren’t deathly afraid of him, they’d be saying the same thing and you’d already know the stories.” She added that “it’s a whole book of people who have been harmed” by the governor (we’re assuming she means they’ve been harmed ’emotionally’. After all, Boylan said that she’s still “unwrapping” the experience years later “in therapy!”.

To try and corroborate her story, Boylan pointed out that the same “small group of white people” has surrounded Cuomo since the beginning, acting like a combination of sounding board and yes-men. For all Cuomo staff outside that group, life working for America’s favorite governor is “endlessly dispiriting.”

Before concluding the thread, Boylan offered the same genuflection of the “privileged” so popular with the left, acknowledging that her time working for governor Cuomo would have been even more unbearable if she hadn’t been able to “opt out” when she did.

“I shudder to think what happens to others”.

Read the full thread below:

Most toxic team environment? Working for @NYGovCuomo. https://t.co/mtM1VYXxSH

— Lindsey Boylan (@LindseyBoylan) December 5, 2020

I’ve had many jobs. Waitressing at @Friendlys as a teenager was an infinitely more respectful environment. Even when I had bad customers who tipped poorly. 

If people weren’t deathly afraid of him, they’d be saying the same thing and you’d already know the stories. 

Seriously, the messages and texts I receive when I speak the truth about this…it’s a whole book of people who have been harmed. 

Don’t be surprised that it’s the same small group of white people sitting alongside him at every presser. The same group that he has had by him the whole time, doing his dirty work. If you’re not one of those handful, your life working for him is endlessly dispiriting. 

I tried to quit three times before it stuck. I’ve worked hard my whole life. Hustled – fake it till you make it style.

That environment is beyond toxic. I’m still unwrapping it years later in therapy! 

And I’m a privileged person. I could opt out and eventually did. I shudder to think what happens to others. It pisses me off so much.  Yes I did not sign whatever they told me to sign when I left. Nope!

* * *

While we would love to take Boylan’s story at face value, there’s reason to take this all with a grain of salt. After all, Boylan has already lost one Democratic primary in NYC running as a progressive outsider taking on the city’s Democratic machine. Maybe she’s hoping that such a high-profile dig at the governor might snowball, expanding her profile and perhaps giving her a fighting chance in her latest race.