A Darth Vader Myers-Briggs personality type was awarded to a NHS training supervisor after he was assigned the Darth Vader personality in a Star Wars-themed Myers-Briggs test.
Croydon Employment Tribunal awarded Mrs Rooke £17,000 in financial losses and £12,000 for emotional injury after she suffered two detriments as a result of her whistleblowing.
The panel ruled Rooke was detrimented by NHSBT for not allowing her to retract her resignation and also in relation to a Myers-Briggs personality test – conducted on her behalf – that assigned her a Darth Vader type personality, which translates to “someone very focused who brings the team to together”.
The claimant raised three protected disclosures, including an omission of a question about a new safety check for blood donors that was to be “live” in the next month.
Rooke was a supervisor of training and practices for NHS Blood and Transplant from April 2003 until she resigned from the Nursing Care Quality Team in October 2021. She later tried to retract her resignation.
She filed claims against NHSBT in the employment tribunal for constructive unfair dismissal and direct disability discrimination.
Disclosures protected by law
Rooke claimed that she disclosed three things. In March 2020, when the first lockdown began, she posted on Yammer, the internal platform, that she was worried that the staff would be put in danger if they did not have personal protective equipment.
In June 2020 she voiced her concern that there were shortcuts in training, which put blood donors and patients at danger. Third, in May of 2021 she told a colleague Ms Harber about the omission made in the safety check for donors.
Rooke has been off work for six months, starting September 2020.
The tribunal heard Rooke’s complaints that her role was being eroded. However, the tribunal determined that the changes were temporary and related to the pandemic.
The panel concluded that Rooke who had represented herself in tribunal failed to prove other disputed facts, such as her claim that NHSBT “disregarded” suggestions for new ways of working and that she was required to provide “inadequate training”.
‘Overwhelm’
The court found that Rooke resigned due to “overwhelm” and “panic” over a new technology set to begin the next day, as well as “overwhelm” with her mother who had dementia.
It found the communications between NHSBT and Rooke, when she wanted to retract her resignation, as “odd”. The tribunal heard that the recruitment process for her replacement had begun when in fact it hadn’t. It also heard of a “recruitment freezing” but there was no evidence to support this.
The tribunal found that there had been “some confusion at the time amongst the respondent personnel, or some obfuscation by their side in their communications with claimant”.
The judgement stated: “The adverse conclusion we draw based on [NHSBT]’s inability to explain its actions, and our concern with [NHSBT]’s position is that the third revelation had a greater than trivial impact on [NHSBT]’s treatment of [the claimant].
The tribunal found that the two other disclosures were not protected. This was because the first was made via Yammer which NHSBT did not necessarily monitor and the second did not demonstrate Rooke’s “reasonable beliefs”.
Darth Vader Personality Type
The panel considered the Darth Vader Incident to be a detriment, even though it didn’t consider that it had a sufficient impact on Rooke for it to constitute a fundamental contract breach.
The tribunal found that [Rooke] perceived her being characterized as having a Darth-Vader personality type as a detriment and it was reasonable to do so. Ms Dee tried to convince us that being characterized as having a Darth Vader type personality had some positive aspects, but she was not able to persuade us. Darth Vader was a legend in the Star Wars universe and being associated with his personality was insulting.
“This was not simply the result of the test that the entire team took, as it was Ms Harber who acted in the shoes and voice of the claimant. This was Ms Harber’s interpretation of [Rooke’s] character, which she shared with the group. It’s no surprise that the claimant felt upset about it.”
Panel said Rooke’s unchallenged testimony was that Harber’s pursuit of a gap in the draft donor security check, which was identified in the third revelation, resulted in Harber “being told that she was a poor representative of NCQT”.
The panel concluded that “we find this to be more than enough to satisfy the requirement of the detriment being ‘on ground’ because the claimant had made the protected third revelation.”
Rooke’s claims of constructive unfair dismissal and direct disability discrimination, as well as a failure to provide reasonable adjustments were rejected.
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