Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), who announced his resignation from Congress Thursday, reportedly ran a office rife with the mistreatment of staffers.
Before his resignation, the vocally pro-life Pennsylvania Republican was revealed to have asked a mistress to get an abortion.
Politico reported the behavior on Thursday, following Murphy’s announcement of his resignation. The outlet reported that a potential investigation into Murphy’s treatment of his employees by the House Ethics Committee motivated his resignation as much as the revelations about his mistress.
Multiple unnamed former Murphy staffers told Politico that the behavior of the congressman’s chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, had moved them to quit.
“It was one of the worst places I have ever worked in my life. There was screaming. Intimidation. Nothing you ever did was right,” a former Murphy district director, Nick Rodondo, told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA, Politico noted.
Every other source was unnamed: Politico reported that Mosychuk called staffers “worthless” and their work “garbage.”
“It’s not like a private company where you have an HR department,” one former staffer told Politico. “It was a culture of abuse and a culture of corruption. There really is no oversight.”
“Screaming was an everyday thing,” said another unnamed former staffer. “The manipulation and the mind games. … Everybody in that office was depressed.”
Multiple unnamed ex-staffers told the publication the chief of staff used white noise machines placed around the congressman’s office in order to mask the sound of her screaming. Staffers were told to take the stairs instead of the elevator as a punishment, according to one former employee, and bathroom breaks were cut short in order to administer verbal disciplining.
Politico also reported that a leaked June 2017 memo by Mosychuk, called “Office Conduct and Behavior: Harassment/Legal Compliance” and outlining supposed abusive behavior by the congressman, more accurately described Mosychuk’s own behavior.
“She was the one who would verbally abuse staff,” one unnamed ex-staffer said. “He was bad, but you can deal with a tough member. She was literally terrorizing people.”
Read Politico’s full story here.
