A high-flying female executive who was sacked from her £220,000 job at a firm run by ‘tech bros’ after spending the night in a sauna on a boozy work trip was discriminated against over her ADHD, a tribunal has ruled.
Shannon Burns was dismissed for her behaviour at the off-site event, where she lost her keys, despite her claims that male colleagues were ‘far more intoxicated’ and faced no punishment.
The ‘trailblazing’ executive was headhunted for the software company and offered the six-figure salary and access to an equity package potentially worth over £30million, but said she soon realised the company was ‘male dominated’ and filled with ‘tech bros’.
Following the trip to Lofer, Austria, in April 2023 she told the tribunal she was informed her antics had ‘eroded trust and confidence’ in her and she should ‘lead the team by example’ as a senior employee at the software company.
Her employer denied that the reason she was dismissed was her behaviour during the trip.
She is now in line for compensation after successfully suing for discrimination with a judge ruling that she experienced a ‘great deal of forgetfulness’ as a result of her ADHD, which contributed to incidents such as losing her keys.
Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon said that while Ms Burns had been intoxicated, being ‘disorganised’ is a feature of the condition and contributed to her misplacing her keys that evening.
It was heard that the condition caused Ms Burns to experience a ‘great deal of forgetfulness’ and she would ‘persistently’ lose items such as her keys and phone.
Ms Burns complained of the rampant ‘tech bro’ culture at the ‘male-dominated’ firm Gitpod
Ms Burns said she was told by female colleagues that Johannes Landgraf (pictured) had a reputation of being a ‘Tech Bro who liked to surround himself with fellow tech bros’
American Ms Burns – who had previously worked for Silicon Valley firm Slack – was headhunted by Gitpod in late 2022 and appointed to the key leadership role of Vice President of Engineering.
Judge Rachel Wedderspoon said there was an expectation that her leadership would be at ‘the highest level’.
In February 2023, Ms Burns contacted the Head of People at Gitpod and asked for an ADHD coach as she was feeling ‘ deeply overwhelmed’ with the her workload and was experiencing a worrying level of anxiety’.
Concerns were raised in March 2023 about Ms Burns’s performance and it was said that there was a ‘lack of progress’ and she was ‘struggling to adapt to the async working style’.
CEO Johannes Landgraf told a colleague that Ms Burns was ‘not a superstar’ and he said he would not hire her again.
The judge noted that at this point, he was not aware of her disabilities of ADHD and dyslexia.
In Austria, a conversation between the pair took place in which Ms Burns asked Mr Landgraf what was the ‘biggest risk to the success of Gitpod’.
On this evening, both had been drinking and were said to be ‘slurring words’.
Shannon Burns, pictured outside the tribunal hearing, is suing for sex discrimination
The judge said Ms Burns had accepted that her ‘impairments were exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol’.
The executive was experiencing a ‘very difficult period’ in her life at the time and had cried and appeared drunk during the event, the judge said.
EJ Wedderspoon found that while Mr Landgraf had been drinking, he was not intoxicated.
That evening, Ms Burns went back to her room but found that the door was locked. She did not have a key to get in.
Her roommate had fallen asleep and Ms Burns – who had locked herself out of her room on another occasion during the trip – was not able to wake her despite trying several times to call and message her.
The judge said that eventually Ms Burns ‘gave up’ and went to sleep in the sauna.
Mr Burns later received a message from a senior male executive who said that Ms Burns must ‘lead the team by example’ and ‘stay in control’.
He went on to say that he had heard comments that Ms Burns had ‘got too drunk and slept in the sauna room’.
After the off-site, Mr Landgraf had concerns about Ms Burns’s ‘lack of professional accountability’ and behaviours which were ‘incompatible with executive responsibility’.
In June, Ms Burns was invited to a meeting where she was dismissed.
The case was heard at the West Midlands Tribunal Centre in Birmingham (pictured)
During the conversation, she was told that the ways she ‘showed up’ at the offsite had ‘eroded ‘trust and confidence in the leadership team.
Ms Burns said in her witness statement: ‘My male colleagues were drinking alcohol/drunk at the offsite but I was the only one who was dismissed.
‘One of my male colleagues [Johannes] behaved in a far more damaging way for both his own reputation and for Gitpod after ‘consuming alcohol’ at the offsite.’
Ms Burns had also claimed she was the victim of sex discrimination and complained of the rampant ‘tech bro’ culture at the firm.
But the judge rejected this and said that her dismissal had nothing to do with her gender and was instead down to the fact that she had displayed ‘a lack of professionalism’.
The tribunal ruled Ms Burns was dismissed as a consequence of her disabilities.
Upholding her disability discrimination claims, EJ Wedderspoon said: ‘[Ms Burns] had consumed quite a lot of alcohol on one night of the offsite when she got locked out of her room.
‘However, being disorganised and forgetful may be features of ADHD.
‘The Tribunal found that losing her keys on the first occasion and being locked out was likely to be something arising from her forgetfulness, a feature of [Ms Burns’] ADHD.
‘However, drinking alcohol is likely to have played a part of being locked out later in the evening…
‘Insofar as [Ms Burns] was criticised for being locked out in the evening the tribunal finds that this was likely in part to be as a result of the combination of her alcohol consumption and her forgetfulness which is a something arising from her disability of ADHD.’
The employment tribunal, held in Birmingham, was told that Ms Burns was diagnosed with ADHD in 2015.
Her claims of sex discrimination were dismissed and EJ Wedderspoon said Ms Burns was not dismissed for being drunk, and was instead sacked ‘in part for her behaviours by reason of being drunk’.
The judge added: ‘She displayed a lack of professionalism namely lack of executive presence as a Vice President.
‘That had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that [Ms Burns] is a woman.’
A remedy hearing to decide her compensation will take place at a later date.
