A British woman who sued a former employer because she didn't get a farewell card found out in court that her colleagues did in fact buy her a card, it's just that hardly anyone signed it, according to a report.
After her colleagues didn't present her with a farewell card on her last day of work, Karen Conaghan sued the International Airlines Group, her former employer from 2019 until she was laid off in 2021, for "failure to acknowledge her existence," a breach of equality law, according to The Guardian.
In court, Conaghan's former colleague testified that they did buy a card, but they didn't give it to her because only three people signed it.
"He believed it would have been more insulting to give her the card than not to give her a card at all," Judge Kevin Palmer revealed.
Conaghan brought a total of 40 allegations against IAG in her lawsuit, including sexual harassment, victimization, and unfair dismissal, but the court dismissed every claim, including the alleged breach of equality law, because they "either did not happen or, if they did, they were innocuous interactions in the normal course of employment," the judge said.
The judge added that Conaghan exhibited a "conspiracy-theory mentality" and misinterpreted "normal workplace interactions" as harassment. The example offered was when Conaghan wrote "whiz" in a coworker's card then claimed another colleague was copying her when they used "whizz" in a different card.
The Guardian reported she also complained after a coworker asked, "Are you taking the piss, Karen?," a popular British term meaning making fun of someone, after she claimed she was doing "all the hard work."
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