In this month’s lighter side of the news we look at a recent claim wherein a male nurse, Mr Marsh, won a sex discrimination claim against the NHS. Being the only male within his health visitor team, he was routinely the butt of jokes by the female staff, including from his boss Ms Sanchez!

When leaving meetings Ms Sanchez would exit shouting ‘goodbye ladies’, intentionally excluding the single male member of staff or even implying that he was himself part of the ‘ladies’. The last straw came when  he was told by his boss that he ‘needed to man up’ during a heated meeting, which ironically, included concerns about poor staff morale!

The Tribunal found that the comment was not only inappropriate but also related to a protected characteristic of sex.

Sometimes workplace jokes just don’t land, or worse they do land but leave an unintended bruise, which creates an intimidating or degrading environment.