Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

GenderLatest NewsEquality, diversity and inclusionCase lawSex discrimination

Senior female executive who refused to socialise with male team loses sex discrimination claim

by Jo Faragher 1 Jul 2020
by Jo Faragher 1 Jul 2020 The claimant said she was marginalised because she didn't socialise with her male colleagues or like football
Stock pic/Shutterstock
The claimant said she was marginalised because she didn't socialise with her male colleagues or like football
Stock pic/Shutterstock

A woman has lost her sex discrimination claim against her employer after fellow workers claimed she was “dictatorial” and lacked respect for her senior colleagues.

Adrienne Liebenberg was director of global sales, marketing and innovation at FTSE 100 packing conglomerate DS Smith, and was made redundant in December 2018 when she was told that her leadership style was not working.

Liebenberg took the company to an employment tribunal, claiming she had been marginalised because she didn’t socialise with her male colleagues and refused to talk about football.

Sex discrimination

How are employees protected from sex discrimination?

Sex discrimination awards 2018/19

She claimed that her manager, Stefano Rossi, would interrupt meetings to discuss his team Inter Milan’s performance and even watch highlights.

She told the Central London Employment Tribunal: “I felt that Stefano’s modus operandi was to connect with his team over wine, dinner and football.

“Because I did not embrace those things in the way that my male colleagues did, I was perceived – by Stefano and others – as not being a ‘team player’ or ‘one of the gang’.”

Liebenberg, who was paid £200,000 a year, also claimed she had been referred to as “little lady” and “girlie”, and was winked at by male colleagues.

In response to her claims, Rossi and his colleagues claimed Liebenberg had been sacked because of poor performance rather than her gender.

They cited her “dictatorial approach” and “lack of respect for senior colleagues” in their tribunal response.

Employment Judge Harjit Grewal dismissed claims for both direct and indirect sex discrimination.

He said: “She said that she felt that Mr Rossi’s modus operandi was to connect with his team over wine, dinner and football, and because she did not embrace those things in the way that her male colleagues did, she was perceived by them as not being a team player.

“We have not found that such a culture existed.”

The Judge added that Rossi felt Liebenberg’s approach was “haughty” towards junior staff, in that she often talked about her large property and swimming pool.

The respondents also accused her of apportioning blame when things went wrong rather than working together with other managers to resolve problems.

Judge Grewal also noted, however, that she was “the only woman in the respondent’s leadership team”.

He added: “The extent of the lack of gender diversity at the senior levels of DS Smith is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.”

Employee relations opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more Employee Relations jobs

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Thousands of redundancies announced across retail, hospitality and aviation
next post
‘Office for Talent’ to improve immigration experience

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

‘It’s International HR Day – wait, you didn’t...

20 May 2022

Policeman dubbed ‘Dolly Parton’ for working Nine to...

20 May 2022

Adapt culture to hybrid work: do not force...

20 May 2022

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

City firms pledge to improve social mobility in...

20 May 2022

Squishy, flabby, foggy HR? Andrew Bartlow talks to...

20 May 2022

Movers and shakers May 2022: John Lewis and...

20 May 2022

City workers desert offices in favour of hybrid...

20 May 2022

Working from home statistics show three-fold increase

20 May 2022

Statutory sick pay reforms would save £4bn

19 May 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+