In 2002, my boss screamed at me and then hit my arm in fury.

He'd never done that before. He never hit the other legal assistant before.

It's irrelevant what precipitated that attack; we'll just say I didn't follow his directions to a Tee.

I immediately told his law partner, who barged into my boss's office and screamed at him. I'm pretty sure the topic was workplace litigation.

The next day, my boss came to me at my desk and tried to obfuscate, telling me that I misinterpreted what happened. That was the moment I knew that I couldn't continue working at my job.

I wanted to, but couldn't, press charges for assault, etc., because my boss (unfortunately) was the former municipal prosecutor where the incident happened. My claim would be dead in the water. I just chose to move on.

My point: Having my boss hit me was bad enough. Having my boss do gaslighting made it much worse.

I've never forgotten what happened and never minimalized my memories. I'm just as outraged today as I was 19 years ago.