This month, we saw a case go to the Employment Appeal Tribunal for sex-based harassment. The argument was that calling a man ‘bald’ amounted to harassment on the grounds of sex, as men are statistically more likely than women to suffer from baldness and ridiculing them for this trait amounted to a form of harassment. The case involved an electrician, Tony Finn, who brought the claim following derogatory comments made by his supervisor.

The argument proved far from hair-brained (forgive me) as the Tribunal cut to the root of the issue (put me in prison) to decide that the comments did amount to harassment. The Judgment found that making comments about a man’s baldness was akin to making derogatory comments about a woman’s breasts by comparing the two situations.

While it is important to smooth out (somebody stop me) issues between employees, it is more important to ensure that employees are not placed in hostile or degrading environments based on a protected characteristic, especially about their appearance.