A public relations worker with ADHD who was criticised for being ‘disorganised’ has won a disability discrimination case.
Nicole Hogger was described as being ‘disorganised’ by her manager after she missed a meeting without telling anyone she would be absent.
She would also miss calls because ‘she had been out for a massage, to Starbucks, or to the supermarket’, a tribunal heard.
It has been ruled that using the word ‘disorganised’ to describe a co-worker can amount to disability discrimination under UK employment law.
A judge at Cambridge Employment Tribunal said that the comment can ‘undermine’ someone and even ‘violate their dignity.’
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After successfully suing Genesis PR for claims of disability harassment, disability discrimination, and unfair constructive dismissal, Nicole is now inline to receive compensation.
Nicole joined the company in October 2018 as a senior PR account executive, before getting promoted to PR account manager in 2020, it was heard.
A member of the senior leadership team, Alison Straker, ‘championed’ Nicole’s promotion because of her effective work.
In her role, she was responsible for leading client projects, managing communication campaigns and organising events.
Nicole was diagnosed with ADHD in 2021, with her doctor stating she showed ‘poor organisation, forgetfulness and difficulty getting started on tasks requiring significant mental effort.’
She also had difficulty ‘maintaining attention’ and that ‘procrastination has always been a problem’, according to a diagnosis report.
Nicole never gave this report to her employers, but, instead mentioned the diagnosis to Ms Straker, who had become her line manager in the same year.
At the start of 2022, Nicole’s managers began to notice she was ‘anxious’ and not coping well with the workload.
One email mentioned in the legal documents shows a manager emailing Ms Straker that ‘Nicole seems to be slipping behind with work again.’
The manager said that their workload was getting heavier because he had to ‘oversee’ Nicole’s work to make sure nothing was missed.
Ms Straker tried to help Nicole by talking with her and giving some of her workload to a colleague which made her feel like ‘a weight had been lifted.’
However, soon after, she began missing calls and concerns about her performance were raised by managers.
In October 2022, a senior accounts manager said that Nicole had ‘gone dark again’ and was not communicating with her colleagues when ‘critical’ work was due.
To this complaint, Ms Straker replied ‘that’s not good enough.’
Ms Straker said that Nicole would sometimes tell her colleagues that ‘she had been out for a massage, to Starbucks or to the supermarket’ while she was supposed to be contactable.
This led to colleagues thinking Nicole was ‘disorganised or uncommitted’ but her ADHD was not brought up.
In once instance, Nicole arrived 40 minutes late to a meeting, even though her colleagues reminded her that it was happening in the office.
Nicole was going to be put on a performance improvement plan by Ms Straker but, the next day, she resigned.
The letter of resignation said that ‘she strongly felt it was time for her to take a new path and continue her professional development elsewhere’.
Nicole then went on to set up her own business later.
Employment Judge Roger Tynan concluded that Genesis PR, based in Ipswich, Suffolk, did not consider Nicole’s ADHD and that there ‘was little, if anything’ she could ‘usefully do’ with the feedback she was given.
There were no ‘practical steps’ made by the company ‘to avoid a similar situation arising in the future’, the judge added.
She set up her own business later.
Judge Tynan said: ‘We consider that it was reasonable for [Nicole] to feel that her dignity had been violated and that an adverse environment had been created as a result of the comments on 19 June 2023.
‘As we have said already, the comments were undermining, as they merely served to highlight a negative aspect of [her] disability. We uphold [her] complaint about that matter.’
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