Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been hounded by accusations in the press that she beats her employees like dogs with hurled binders, verbal attacks, and even eating her salad with hair combs and making them clean her improvised utensil just to show everybody who the boss is in the office. Now, the presidential 2020 candidate says that same grit...or psychosis...or whatever you want to call it is exactly what the next president needs in order to stand up to world figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and that she has "high standards" for America, just like she does her staff.
Chalking it up to nothing but an expectation of excellence from everybody on her team, Sen. Klobuchar told CNN, "If you are a boss, you have to have high standards, and that is what I have always had. And that doesn't mean it's a popularity contest all the time...And so I've had high standards for myself, high standards for our staff, and mostly I'm going to have high standards for the country." emphasis added
"One can always do better, and that means you want to be sure that you are listening to people if they felt that something was unfair, or they felt bad about something. But I still think that you have to demand good product," Klobuchar continued. "When you're out there on the world stage and dealing with people like Vladimir Putin, yeah, you want someone who's tough. You want someone that demands the answers and that's going to get things done, and that's what I've done my whole life." emphasis added
As Matt has previously noted, reports from former staffers are "so bad that three people bolted when the Minnesota Democrat approached them to run her 2020 campaign. She has high turnover rates concerning staff and Klobuchar admits that she had pushed staff too hard and can be tough at times."
Matt also made an important distinction, saying, "of course, as this story and others like it have said, there will always be a loyal cohort who admit to being chewed out by the senator but have nothing but positive things to say about their tenure on her staff. It still doesn’t really debunk entirely the allegation that Klobuchar could very well be a nightmare to work with, but that goes for any job. Some times you can get a horrible boss."
Could these past stories of a hostile work environment be over exaggerated? Perhaps. Is it strange to try and turn your "bad boss" reputation as something that is positive for dealing with Vladimir Putin? Absolutely. One would hope that dealing with your staff is not the same way you negotiate with ruthless rulers like Putin whatsoever. Furthermore, if she treats her employees that way, what should the rest of America expect from her?