My boss abused me on Friday. She took me up one side and down the other because she objected to a phrase I used; but I never know what word or phrase or situation will set her off; she has such a skewed view of things and she is so angry all the time, it could be anything. She has gotten angry about foodstuffs, beverages, parking places, stuff from 35 years ago, reports that are not done but are not due yet, to name a few. When she is not angry at me she is angry at stuff from 35 years ago, her inlaws, her dentist from 20 years ago, the guy delivering stuff to the office, trees in her neighborhood, whether or not the taste of certain colas has changed, a man who died several years ago. She's careful not to curse me out (so there is no "damn you" or "you f***ng piece of ****") although she has randomly told me 'stories' where she will say "and then I told her "F*** YOU" and she looks right at me and repeats "F*** YOU" loudly several times, which in my mind is her way of basically saying it to me (either way, that isn't appropriate language for the workplace). She has abused my coworker on rare occasions, too, and in some ways what she says to her is even worse. While the boss was taking me to task she was telling me about her experience having been abused on the job when she worked in other areas of the company (the gist of it was she had to put up with it). There is no talking to her about this stuff when she is 'calmer' because almost everything is a trigger for her. In fact any protracted conversation with her that she does not initiate enrages her. There is not going to be any telling HR; she lied in the past about another coworker and I know she'll do it again. I've thought about saying very quietly "there is no need to be abusive."