Public relations employee with ADHD sacked for being ‘disorganised’ wins disability discrimination case
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15388247/employee-ADHD-sacked-disorganised-disability-discrimination-case.html
Posted by SomniaStellae
15 Comments
Why do i get the feeling this article is intentionally written to piss people off. She missed meetings due to starbucks, massages, etc. Well, give us the context, because the article makes it seem like she was entitled and did whatever she wanted. Whilst possible, i highly doubt it. She’d have been bollocked the first time she just wandered off to do whatever.
Try to sack on lack of Merit and got a get out of jail card due to being called “disorganised”.
UK is going mad and the few jobs we have available need to go to people based on Merit. I can not believe what I just read haha.
[Tribunal Documentation to show deliberation process](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69381bfde447374889cd8f6b/Ms_Nicole_Hogger_v_Genesis_PR_Ltd_3301581_2024_Reasons.pdf) – warning, PDF file, but it should address issues of the Mail not quite stating things clearly.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69381bfde447374889cd8f6b/Ms_Nicole_Hogger_v_Genesis_PR_Ltd_3301581_2024_Reasons.pdf
Like always. The established facts don’t match the Daily Mail narrative.
The company knew of the ADHD, eventually did occupational health assessment. Completely ignored the recommendations and forget that she had ADHD.
It’s shocking how much the media tries to undermine neurodivergence.
When properly supported, such people can do exceptional things. But pretending like it’s convenient self-indulgence and a hoax is disgraceful and is undermining people getting the help they need to thrive.
Many ‘normal’ people who have shit lives may scoff at ADHD/autism and never realise that they have it- and that being informed of it can lead to more effective coping mechanisms.
This wasn’t a cartoon villain employer. Read the judgment and what you mostly see is managers trying to support someone who was struggling, trying to protect clients, trying to keep work moving. Weekly check-ins, workload adjustments, OH referral, phased return, informal conversations. Clumsy at points, inconsistent at others, but recognisably normal management.
And yet the outcome is that feedback becomes harassment, a PIP becomes discrimination, and failing to buy ADHD coaching becomes a breach of the law. That should worry anyone who’s ever had to manage people.
If you talk candidly about how behaviour lands with colleagues, you’re said to undermine dignity by highlighting disability-linked traits. If you don’t talk about it, you failed to support. If you keep things informal, you’re criticised for lacking structure. If you add structure, that escalation itself becomes the detriment.
The employee is treated as too vulnerable to receive blunt feedback, but also fully entitled to reinterpret ordinary management as discriminatory harm. Disclosure becomes asymmetric, the employer must infer needs, fund adjustments, and avoid mentioning disability too explicitly, while being criticised later for not factoring it in enough.
Seems like a crazy judgement to me and we then wonder why the economy is in the doldrums.
I’m dyslexic, I’d be a great librarian. I mean ADHD, disorganised who would have fault .
Even as someone with ADHD who has had a hard time in jobs because of attitudes like these… I still feel sorry for people who fall for this kind of ragebait. It’s so blatant – so obvious – and yet people can’t see past it. Must make life difficult.
I’m autistic, time to sue when the radio is too loud for me at the office which by the way it always is.
it’s basically a free pass to act however the fuck you want
Can someone explain something to me, DSM 5 classes a lot of these conditions like ADHD/PDA/Autism and the like as spectrum disorders. As in we are ALL in possession of some or all of these traits to some or less degree.
I’m not denying that these things exist, far from it i think they absolutely do (my colleagues say i have some undiagnosed autistic tendencies and they’re probably right.) but if these conditions are a spectrum ranging from perfectly fine through to being so bad you have to be sectioned. Who decided where that arbitrary line is or what point on the spectrum qualifies you for disability benefits? it just doesn’t seem consistent anymore.
I’m suspicious (because Daily Mail) in how this has been framed, but they’re making out that you now can’t be sacked for being ‘crap at your job’.
My daughter lives in the States and was involved in a similar case in the USA. She is a theatrical wardrobe mistress with vast experience in the theatre , dance, TV , animatronics and puppets. A US firm headhunters her to come to their company and set up a new costume shop for them. My girl is profoundly ADHD and dyslexic but has over come a lot of hurdles to get where she is. She set up the costume shop for them and brought in a vast amount of money for them.
After about a year, they started to pick holes in her work, reports and the suchlike, saying that they could not stand her disorganisation, they even stopped her closing her office door as they could not watch her, her staff were welcome to knock and enter at anytime.
She was called into see the CEO and with no notice at all, she was sacked. At her interview when she first started , she openly told them of her hidden disabilities . Someone from the company rang around other similar firms to tell them not to employ her but told the person to f**k off. On the strength of this, she is starting her own company. She tried to take action against the firm but she was told that the state law is week on divergence and that there not a lot that she can do. What a country …..
I have ADHD. I’m in my 40’s and was diagnosed over 20 years ago and medicated.
I’ve been a teacher (general and special Ed early years both USA and Europe) and cabaret/events producer in the UK. Both take a lot of organization to do well, effectively, safely and successfully for years. Either she wasn’t in the right role or they just wanted her out and used an excuse, which frankly does happen at times if an employee is transparent about having ADHD.
Being disorganized isn’t the exclusive provenance of people with ADHD and in fact for logistics and planning (as opposed to maybe a laundry pile at home) hyper focus can make us exceptionally skilled at organization.
Getting an adhd diagnosis is the same lottery win as getting a council house back in the day.