Background <p>Nurses are integral to healthcare, ensuring the effective functioning of healthcare services. Despite their crucial role, they face significant stressors, including despotic leadership. This type of leadership results in adverse outcomes such as organizational silence, emotional exhaustion, and revanchist behaviors. This study aims to comprehensively understand the detrimental effects of despotic leadership on nurses’ well-being and behaviors, and to investigate the complex relationships between despotic leadership, organizational silence, emotional exhaustion, and revanchist behaviors in the nurses.</p> Methods <p>In the study, data were collected from 216 nurses working at a public hospital in Kocaeli (Türkiye) and hypotheses were tested through path analysis based on structural equation modeling (sequential mediation model).</p> Results <p>The data analysis revealed that despotic leadership contributes to emotional exhaustion and organizational silence respectively, which in turn lead to employees engaging in revanchist behaviors. However, although emotional exhaustion does not mediate the relationship between despotic leadership and revanchist behaviors, it does mediate the relationship between despotic leadership and organizational silence. Additionally, despotic leadership triggers organizational silence, which in turn results in revanchist behaviors.</p> Conclusion <p>The findings highlight the detrimental effects of despotic leadership on nurses’ mental health and professional behavior. Despotic leadership creates a toxic work environment that suppresses nurses’ voices, leading to emotional exhaustion and revanchist behaviors. Eliminating despotic leadership practices and promoting open communication are essential to improving nurses’ well-being and maintaining a healthy healthcare environment.</p>