Britons tend to back recent employment tribunal that decided it should not be fireable offence
An employment tribunal has ruled that office manager Kerrie Herbert was unfairly dismissed when she was sacked on the spot for calling two of her bosses “dickheads” during an argument. She has been awarded £30,000 in compensation, but do Britons agree with the precedent the case has set?
Nearly half of Britons (46%) agree that it should not be a sackable offence to call your boss a “dickhead” to their face, outnumbering the 39% who believe it is reason enough to be let go.
Women are split 42% to 41% over whether or not calling your boss a “dickhead” should lead to the reply “you’re fired”, while men back the tribunal’s ruling by 50% to 37%.
Earlier in the year, a YouGov study on attitudes to swearing found that older Britons were less likely to say it was acceptable to swear at work with colleagues than their younger counterparts.
Here, however, attitudes are fairly consistent across the generations, with 44-49% in all age groups saying it should not be a sackable offence to call your boss a dickhead, while 36-41% believe it should.
Do you think it should be a sackable offence to call your boss a ‘dickhead’? What do you think about swearing in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
