Paula Abdul needs to start requiring her employees to sign gag orders. An assistant recently ousted by the American Idol judge has stepped forward to spill on the Rush, Rush singer’s emotional instability.

“She’s known to turn on almost everybody in her life at some point or other,” says one of Paula’s recently fired employee. “But then she will break down if they walk out on her. She’s wept shamelessly when her assistants have resigned in the past.”

“She has a history of doing this: Sitting or standing by the phone, sobbing and quietly pushing them to tell the person on the other end of the line how ‘unacceptable’ it was for he/she to have treated Paula ‘like that.’”