All About Laughs
Could this woman be one of the world’s worst bosses you could ever have? A Long Island woman was fired from her job in an unthinkable action after doing one of the most selfless things someone could ever do, and all for her boss.
ABCNews reports of Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, that was employed by the Atlantic Automotive Group. Her boss was a 61-year-old woman by the name of Jackie Brucia, who in 2009 hired Stevens as an assistant.
According to the formal complaint that Stevens filed with the New York State Human Rights Commission, she left the company in June of 2010 and relocated to Florida. In September of that year, she came back to New York to visit her daughter and at the same time chose to visit the dealership. During this visit, Brucia informed Stevens that she was in need of a kidney transplant.
“She said she had a possible donor, a friend or something,” Stevens said. “But I told her if anything happened that I’d be willing to donate my kidney. She kind of jokingly replied, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that one day.'”
The joke would become serious in a few months after Stevens moved back to New York, and although re-hired by Brucia almost immediately, things soon went downhill. Stevens claims that in January of 2011, she was called into Brucia’s office and asked whether or not she was serious about donating her kidney months ago as her condition seemingly worsened.
“I said, ‘Yeah, sure. This isn’t a joking matter,'” said Stevens to ABC. “I did not do it for job security. I didn’t do it to get a raise. I did it because it’s who I am. I didn’t want her to die.”
Tests would soon reveal that Stevens was not a match for Brucia, but she decided to donate her kidney to another patient in need in Missouri. With the doctors in agreement, this also allowed Brucia to be placed higher on the donor list.
Although she underwent surgery, it led to many heatlh complications for her body. Stevens would return to work four weeks following the surgery, and into Brucia’s line of fire.
“She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery,” Steven’s claimed. “It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney.” Unable to find the words for the treatment which included constant screaming and emotional abuse, she sought psychiatric help which then led her to hire attorneys. Stevens’ attorneys sent a letter to the company on her behalf.
Within a week, Debbie Stevens had been terminated from her job.
Her civil rights attorney, Lenard Leeds, plans to file a discrimination lawsuit against AAG, with the hopes of receiving millions of dollars in compensation. “Our ultimate goal is to bring this before federal court,” Leeds said. “We’re alleging they discriminated against her for her disability and they retaliated against her when she complained about the harassment.”
As for Stevens and her feelings on Brucia? “I have no comment on her,” she said. “ I’m just going walk ahead and live my life.”
