12-05-2025
The reign of the office snowflakes must end now
From being given the wrong coloured cup to not having her banana cut in the right way, my toddler is in the habit of being offended by almost anything and everything. But she is in good company.
As it turns out, the so-called terrible twos really linger. Adults are having tantrums over ludicrous things everywhere, throwing their proverbial toys out of the pram not only at home but also at the workplace.
What once would have been considered embarrassing is now encouraged. Outrage culture is thriving, with people happy to kick off over any perceived insult, even though, I'm afraid to say, feeling offended now and then is a part of life.
While it goes without saying that we should be sensitive in the way we speak to each other, and obviously some are far more vulnerable than others, nobody can live in a world with no discomfort.
Workplaces and the people in them are deeply flawed. That doesn't mean we should put up with the office bully, but rather accept that work can be irritating because of the people in it.
But some of the claims going through the clogged-up employment tribunal system suggest our sensitivities have gone too far.
This week, we learnt about the NHS worker who was awarded almost £30,000 after being compared to Darth Vader by a colleague.
'Being aligned with his personality is insulting,' a judge concluded, adding that it was reasonable for the aggrieved worker to perceive the characterisation as a 'detriment'.
While there's always deeper layers to these tales, it all adds to a growing sense that offence-taking culture has reached its peak.
The Star Wars-themed case follows a previous tribunal hearing that saw an NHS nurse awarded £41,000 after being left out of a tea round.
Earlier this year, an HMRC employee also successfully sued after she was sent an unwanted birthday card from her boss, while a senior estate agent who resigned because he wanted to sit at a 'symbolically significant' desk successfully sued for unfair constructive dismissal.
And beware of offering a 66-year-old a seat at work – a tribunal found last year that doing so could constitute age discrimination. Oh, and don't even think about calling a man bald. In 2022, a panel of balding judges ruled that doing so could be considered sexual harassment.
As judges waste time debating which office worker offended whom and how, as if they are breaking up an argument in a school playground, therapy-speak has firmly entered the workplace.
Office workers in cushy jobs are saying they can't work on simple projects because the amount of work involved violates their boundaries. All the while, there are those facing horrendous, exploitative working conditions across the country whose stories will never get told.
The most extreme cases of workplace abuse often go unnoticed, because the true victims aren't those being left out of tea rounds or being called bald. Society's most vulnerable rarely get heard.
Instead, the cultural spotlight is on office tittle-tattle and perceived slights that are increasingly becoming weaponised, with one boss saying that businesses are forced to 'settle claims they think they'll win because they don't want to spend £10,000 on lawyers and be distracted for 18 months'.
There are concerns that all of this could get out of hand under the looming Employment Rights Bill, which will give staff the right to claim unfair dismissal from the first day in a job. Bosses point out that they already feel like claims have spiked since the pandemic, coinciding with the sharp rise in home working and mental health issues.
There have been employment cases which on the surface seem bonkers, but have been driven by mental health complaints.
The Government and employers have the impossible task of trying to work out how much of all of this is part of the so-called 'snowflake culture', and how much is a sign of a systemic post-pandemic mental health crisis. There are fears that some are gaming the system.
'Mental health is a very difficult thing to deal with,' says one boss. 'In the old days, the issue was timekeeping, which was specific. When it's not specific, it becomes very difficult to handle.
'Let's say there's a performance issue – if the person then says, 'sorry I can't cope because I've got X condition and you're now putting too much pressure on me', how are you supposed to respond?
'That's the issue, really – how do you tell if someone is gaming the system? An employer isn't an expert in mental health.'
Mental health issues do need to be tackled, and I don't agree with throwing around the term 'snowflake' to dismiss anyone who is just sensitive or might be suffering.
But when it comes to other issues – people living in a state of faux, semi-permanent outrage or trying to skive off work because they can't be bothered – then there needs to be a way to deal with the problem without it leading to lawsuits.
Employment tribunals are meant to be a last resort, but in the last quarter of 2023, there were close to half a million outstanding claims.
Ministers are now scrambling to find a way to make the system more efficient, privately asking business groups and unions for advice on how to cut red tape while still making sure angry workers can fight their corner.
The issue is that if the Employment Rights Bill encourages more legal action, everyone could be at it.
If 85pc of people really have experienced an annoying colleague, as a poll conducted last year by Kickresume claims, then the amount of pent-up anger out there must be huge.
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