HR manager said he was ‘devastated’ by criticism but judge says he suffered no unfavourable treatment
Pointing out that an employee’s work is messy and full of mistakes is not harassment, a tribunal has ruled.
Bosses need to be able to identify workers’ weaknesses in an attempt to improve their performance, an employment judge said.
Claiming that such criticism is discriminatory is unreasonable, the panel said.
The ruling came in the case of an HR manager who claimed to have been “devastated, hurt and profoundly upset” after his boss told him his work was messy and needed improvement.
Thomas Shevlin said that any errors were as a result of his ADHD and that Rebecca Roycroft’s comments had left him “humiliated and ashamed”, accusing her of discrimination and harassment. The tribunal disagreed, however.
Employment judge David Massarella said: “The making of spelling and grammar errors in professional documents is, self-evidently, a weakness.
“We are satisfied that Ms Roycroft’s intention or purpose in making the comment was exclusively directed at assisting [Mr Shevlin] to improve and to eliminate a relatively minor weakness in his performance.
“We consider that [his] response, and that sense of grievance, to be unjustified having regard these anodyne comments. In our judgment, there was no unfavourable treatment.
“If a manager cannot be explicit about a weakness in performance, there is a risk that an entirely well meant warning will not be taken onboard by the employee.”
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