(NOTE LANGUAGE) For those of you who dream about telling off their boss, let us introduce your new hero.
The Guardian reports that a woman in England has been awarded thousands of dollars after a tribunal found she was improperly fired for calling her boss a “d***head.”
The incident occurred back in 2022, when Kerrie Herbert, an office manager for a scaffolding and brickwork company, became concerned she was about to be let go upon discovering documents relating to her pay in her boss’s desk. Later, Thomas Swannell, who runs the company alongside his wife, spoke with Herbert regarding issues with her job performance. She then started to cry, and that’s when the d-word slipped.
“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 d***heads that I stayed,” Herbert recalls saying.
Swannell then fired Herbert on the spot, and she sued for unfair dismissal.
In discussing Herbert’s case, the tribunal ruled that she “made a one-off comment” while in a “heated meeting.”
“Whilst her comment was not acceptable, there is no suggestion that she had made such comments previously,” the judge continued. “Further … this one-off comment did not amount to gross misconduct or misconduct so serious to justify summary dismissal.”
While Herbert’s contract stated that “the provocative use of insulting or abusive language” could be grounds for termination, it also stipulated that she’d be given a prior warning before getting fired. She could be only let go immediately if she used “threatening and intimidating language.”
Herbert was awarded about $20,000 in compensation and $19,000 to cover legal fees.