When the Boardroom Becomes a Crime Scene – Abuse, Silence, and Accountability in the Court Reporting Profession

“Workplace intimidation isn’t just a toxic culture — it’s a weapon. And when it ends in death, the boardroom becomes a crime scene. Or does it become the place of cover-up?”

This isn’t about corporate America. This is about our boardrooms — the association board members, the state and national court reporting organizations, the regional leaders, and the official management in superior, district, and federal courts.

These are the spaces that shape the profession. They set the tone. They decide what is prioritized — and what is quietly ignored. And too often, they look the other way when the culture becomes dangerous.

Let’s say it plainly: a culture of fear and silence within our own institutions has ended lives. First it destroys someone’s spirit — then, tragically, their body may follow. When that happens, it’s not just a tragedy. It’s a failure of leadership.

Not Neutral. Complicit.

Workplace abuse — whether through bullying, intimidation, exclusion, or retaliation — is not a personality conflict. It is systemic harm. And when those in power stay silent, when whistleblowers are ostracized, and when grievances are ignored or dismissed as “drama,” the system is no longer flawed — it’s complicit.

In the court reporting profession, this shows up in chilling ways:

Board members retaliating against dissent.
Leadership gatekeeping opportunities for those who question the status quo.
Court offices punishing vulnerability or honesty with isolation.
Associations minimizing mental health crises or workplace stressors until it’s too late.

These patterns don’t happen by accident. They persist because the people with power let them.

“Who Is This?” – When Silence Isn’t Enough, Discredit Comes Next

As I’ve raised these concerns publicly, I’ve received a recurring type of response. Not thoughtful disagreement. Not evidence-based debate. But vague, passive-aggressive comments like:

“Who is this?”
“Who created this page?”

These aren’t sincere questions. They’re tone-policing. They’re gatekeeping. They’re attempts to discredit the person so they don’t have to address the message.

It’s a tactic we see often when someone dares to speak out — especially someone without a formal title or protected position. The implication is that only people with status are allowed to raise uncomfortable truths. But let me be clear:

You do not need a title to tell the truth.
You do not need a badge to bear witness.
And you certainly don’t need permission to speak about harm.

These kinds of comments don’t just derail important conversations — they reinforce the very power dynamics that have allowed workplace abuse to thrive unchecked. And they prove the point: when you challenge silence, intimidation will often try to take its place.

The Real Responsibility of Leadership

Every board member, every court reporting association leader, every official in a management role — you hold lives in your hands. Your job is not just to maintain procedure or protect tradition. Your duty is to protect people.

That includes:

Funding initiatives for mental health, harassment prevention, and psychosocial safety.
Ensuring grievance systems are safe, anonymous, and taken seriously.
Demanding transparency about toxic behavior — even when it comes from within the board.
Recognizing that power dynamics are not neutral — they favor the abuser when silence reigns.

Culture starts at the top. And if fear is growing in the profession, look upward. Look at who benefits when people are afraid to speak.

Human Cost, Not Just Professional Risk

Let us remember the human toll: the colleague who stopped showing up. The professional who took their own life. The person who was mocked after speaking out about mistreatment. These are not abstractions. They are real people — and their pain was real.

To make fun of the person who died from workplace abuse is not just cruel — it’s a second violence. To dehumanize them is to absolve the system that harmed them.

Empathy — not policy — is the first step to change. Because we don’t leave jobs. We leave people. And in this field, far too many are leaving in silence, in shame, and sometimes, for good.

Time to Reckon

It’s time for association boards and court leadership to stop hiding behind bureaucracy. This profession deserves better. It needs better.

Accountability is not just a buzzword. It’s a shift in power. It means:

Listening to survivors.
Investigating misconduct — even when it’s uncomfortable.
Naming the harm — not erasing it.
Choosing justice over reputation.

This profession was built on precision, ethics, and truth. We can’t afford to abandon those values inside our own institutions.

When abuse happens in our ranks, the boardroom doesn’t get to claim innocence. It must face the mirror. Because the next time harm is ignored, the legacy won’t be one of leadership — it will be one of complicity.

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Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps. This has done a lot of damage to our industry. It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued. We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives. Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that! We are the Responsible Charge. “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met. This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more. In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.” That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone. Who we are is the Responsible Charge. How we do that is by Protecting the Record. View more posts