Calling your boss a ‘dickhead’ is not a sackable offence, a tribunal has ruled.
Kerrie Herbert has won almost £30,000 in compensation after she was found to have been unfairly dismissed for throwing the insult at her manager and another director.
While the employment judge called the insults ‘inappropriate and regrettable’, she concluded they don’t necessarily amount to gross misconduct, especially if said ‘in the heat of the moment’.
Employment judge Sonia Boyes ruled the scaffolding and brickwork company Ms Herbert worked for had not ‘acted reasonably in all the circumstances in treating [her] conduct as a sufficient reason to dismiss her’.
The hearing heard Ms Herbert started her £40,000-a-year role at Northampton firm Main Group Services in October 2018.
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The business was run by Thomas Swannell and his wife Anna.
The tribunal heard that in May 2022 she found documents in her boss’s desk about the costs of employing her, and became upset as she believed he was going to let her go.
When Mr Swannell then raised issues about her performance, she began crying, the hearing was told.
Ms Herbert then told the tribunal she said: ‘If it was anyone else in this position they would have walked years ago due to the goings on in the office, but it is only because of you two dickheads that I stayed’.
She said Mr Swannell retorted: ‘Don’t call me a f****** dickhead or my wife. That’s it, you’re sacked. Pack your kit and f*** off.’
Ms Herbert said she asked if he was really firing her, and her boss answered: “Yes I have, now f*** off.’
The hearing was told that under the terms of her contract, she could be fired for ‘the provocative use of insulting or abusive language’ – but this required she be given a prior warning.
The company claimed she had been dismissed for poor performance at work, but Judge Boyes found she was summarily fired because of her use of the word ‘dickheads’ and ruled that the company had failed to follow proper disciplinary procedures.
The judge ordered the company to pay Ms Herbert £15,042.81 in compensation as well as pay just over £14,000 towards her legal fees.
Judge Boyes added: ‘I find that the reason for her dismissal on that date was her conduct at that meeting.
‘The company’s disciplinary procedure was not followed. Ms Herbert was not given notice of the termination of her employment nor was she paid in lieu of that notice.
‘Considered in context, I do not find that Ms Herbert’s comments amounted to a repudiation of the whole contract.
‘Although her comments were inappropriate and regrettable, they did not justify summary dismissal.
‘In essence, the conduct when considered in context was not so serious as to amount to a repudiatory breach of contract.’
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