It's important to remember that there ARE some lovely humans out there named Karen. But yet, stories like these are NOT HELPING.
A woman in the U.K. named Karen Conaghan was recently laid off by her employer, IAG . . . the parent company of British Airways. And she filed a claim against them, arguing that they breached an equality law.
But get this: She was mad because she didn't get a FAREWELL CARD.
There's more to the story though. An employment tribunal looked into it, and discovered that the company HAD a card for Karen . . . but only "two or three" people were willing to sign it. So they opted not to give it to her, figuring that giving her that card was worse than not giving her one at all.
Now, you're probably wondering are farewell cards THAT big of a deal there? Probably not. It sounds like Karen was . . . well . . . really something.
In addition to the farewell card claim, she SUED the company bringing 40 complaints against them for things like sexual harassment, victimization, and unfair dismissal.
It sounds like she had several issues with co-workers . . . including igniting an argument with one, because they "corrected her spelling" of "whizz" in ANOTHER card for a colleague. (???)
And her boss said there was nothing to her complaints . . . saying that she'd harbored a "conspiracy-theory mentality" . . . and mistook "normal workplace interactions" for harassment.
In any event, a judge tossed her case. It was determined that she was appropriately laid-off . . . two other workers were also let go at the same time . . . and that her position had become "redundant" in a company restructure.
The judge also ruled that the acts cited in her claim "either did not happen . . . or, if they did . . . were innocuous interactions in the normal course of employment."