Thomas Shevlin is a senior HR operations manager at John Wiley & Sons, having begun this role in May 2022. Now, he’s dealing with a major blow to his ongoing legal fight against the company. After Shevlin left his position in the wake of resigning after obtaining a new position, Shevlin filed a lawsuit claiming disability discrimination. He alleged that his director, Rebecca Roycroft, commented negatively on his performance. These comments played a huge role in his decision to depart the organization.
In a statement made during the hearing of the tribunal in east London, Shevlin expressed his concerns. He described Roycroft’s reactions to his performance as “humiliating and shaming.” He explained mistakes he made in his work—namely, typos and grammatical errors—as a byproduct of his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While Shevlin argued otherwise, the tribunal ruled that Roycroft’s comments were not meant to be discriminatory or harassing.
In her May 2023 review of Shevlin’s work, Roycroft noted his habit of cutting corners during peak times. This rushed process led to a plethora of errors and omissions. She stated, “When Thomas is very busy he has a tendency to rush the work which he is doing, which can culminate in typos in emails, use of capitals when they shouldn’t be as well as sentences that don’t make sense.”
Roycroft acknowledged that while she understood the pressures of his workload, she believed these issues could negatively impact his professional reputation. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with this most of the time – I understand that it’s the result of him being incredibly busy and him just rushing to the next thing. She noted that this approach threatens to tarnish his carefully cultivated personal brand. It can be a real jumble once you get out there with all of your stakeholders around the globe.
Employment judge David Massarella, who was part of the tribunal, stated that making spelling and grammar errors in professional documents is “self-evidently a weakness.” The tribunal ultimately concluded that Roycroft’s comments were intended to help Shevlin improve and address a minor weakness in his performance. Suing under Title IX, Wright noted that the Respondents called her comments “anodyne” and found that they were insufficient to rise to the level of harassment.