28-05-2025
Getting upset by a work mug going missing is ‘out of proportion'
Getting upset at your work mug going missing is 'out of proportion' and likely to cause colleagues to feel 'resentment' towards you, an employment tribunal has ruled.
A judge has decided that implying that a missing cup has been stolen could be seen as 'confrontational'.
The tribunal weighed in on the office politics surrounding work mugs in the case of a Currys worker who sued for racism after his went missing.
Adeel Habib claimed he was discriminated against when colleagues 'cold-shouldered' him after he got 'greatly upset' by someone else taking his cup.
The employment tribunal heard his reaction – in which he implied fellow staff were guilty of theft – seemed 'out of proportion'.
His racism claim against the electrical retail giant was dismissed with the panel finding any 'resentment' towards him was caused by his 'confrontational' attitude to the mug going missing.
'Ill-equipped' to handle
The hearing, held in Southampton, Hampshire, was told Mr Habib began working for Currys as a credit support associate in January 2023 at their office in Poole, Dorset, but he lasted under four months on the job.
A co-worker explained to a 'greatly upset' Mr Habib that if he had left the mug in the kitchen then someone else had probably used it as those cups were seen as communal.
She then offered to go around the office with Mr Habib and ask colleagues if they had seen the mug.
The associate – who is of Pakistani background – said that after this incident he was 'cold-shouldered' by his colleagues and claimed at the tribunal that this amounted to racial discrimination.
Employment Judge David Hughes said Mr Habib probably 'caused some resentment' because of his 'confrontational behaviour' in the search for the mug, adding it had nothing to do with his race.
He said the associate was 'ill-equipped' to manage the nuances of social interaction in the workplace which could have 'eased tensions'.
'Probably very upset'
Judge Hughes said: 'We find that Mr Habib was probably very upset about his mug. Just how upset he was probably seemed to his colleagues to be out of proportion to the loss of a mug.'
He ruled that Mr Habib probably gave his co-workers reason to believe 'he viewed the loss of the mug as stealing', causing resentment.
'Sad though it is to have to say this, it seems to us to be likely that Mr Habib is, unfortunately, ill-equipped to cope with the nuances of social interaction in the workplace, and lacks the sort of social skills that might have eased tensions that arose around the mug incident,' he added.
Mr Habib also tried to claim that his manager denying him five weeks annual leave to go back to Pakistan for a series of weddings, which he requested just a month into his employment, was racial discrimination.
The tribunal found that the rejection of his holiday request was not discrimination but merely his manager following Currys' standard policy.
