A senior estate agent who furiously resigned after being given a desk he believed undermined his authority has won damages against his employer.
Nicholas Walker, 53, was left feeling ‘upset’ at Robsons Estate Agents in Hertfordshire after being told he would sit at a ‘middle’ desk rather than the ‘back’ desk – typically where the manager sits.
When Mr Walker’s boss heard about his opposition to the arrangements, he said he could not believe ‘a man of his age’ was ‘making a fuss’ about where he would sit.
But having now won his case at an employment tribunal, the ruling means senior employees who are given a desk they see as being beneath their status could pursue successful legal action.
Sitting near junior staff in the office could ‘logically’ lead to more experienced employees feeling like they have been demoted or are not respected, the panel said.
As a result, this could ‘destroy or seriously damage’ their relationship with bosses.
The 53-year-old, who was also a director of the firm, submitted his resignation after a bust-up with his boss and is now set for a payout after successfully suing the employer for unfair constructive dismissal.
The hearing, held in Watford, heard that Mr Walker was branch manager at Robsons in Rickmansworth from 2017.
In 2022 he was moved to the nearby Chorleywood branch but in May 2023 was asked to return because his replacement there had resigned.
Sales Director Daniel Young decided Mr Walker would share the branch manager role with a more junior colleague but did not inform him.
The desk at the back of the Rickmansworth office was said to have ‘practical and symbolic’ significance as it had always been used by the branch manager and was where financial documents were stored.
But the junior colleague, Matthew Gooder, had already moved to the back desk by the time Mr Walker arrived there, leaving him with nowhere but the middle desk to sit.
Mr Walker told the tribunal he was ‘upset’ at this news as it indicated he would be merely an ‘assistant manager’.
He messaged Mr Young and said: ‘I am not going back…and sitting in the middle.’
Mr Young, who did not realise the ‘significance’ of the back desk nor understand how Mr Walker was concerned about his status being ‘undermined’, drew the conclusion that the estate agent had found work with a competitor.
He asked an external HR service for advice and was told to ‘express disappointment’ that Mr Walker said he would resign if he didn’t get to sit at a specific desk.
Mr Young was also advised to consider if there was a ‘genuine reason’ for it and that it could lead to a disciplinary issue if he refused to move.
By the time the company director arrived at Chorleywood to speak to Mr Walker he was ‘angry and upset’ and had convinced himself the estate agent was going to resign.
The tribunal found that their meeting ‘escalated quickly’ and the tribunal heard Mr Young either said he could not believe ‘a man of your age’ or ‘a f*****g 53-year-old man’ was making a fuss about a desk.
Eventually, Mr Walker threatened to resign and Mr Young told him ‘go on then’ and walked him back to his desk to write up his resignation.
Two days after the meeting Mr Walker tried to recover the situation and retract his resignation but Mr Young did not return his call and instead his leaving date was brought forward and he was given payment in lieu of notice.
The tribunal concluded Mr Walker had been right to see the desk issue as a ‘demotion’.
Employment Judge Aku Reindorf said: ‘From [Mr Walker’s] point of view, finding out that Mr Gooder was sitting at the back desk and he would be sitting at the middle desk amounted to being told that he would be assistant manager and Mr Gooder would be branch manager.
‘This was a logical conclusion for him to draw in circumstances where communication with him about the logistics of the Rickmansworth move had been poor.
‘The Tribunal finds [it was] conduct that was likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust and confidence.
‘Either becoming assistant manager or becoming joint manager with Mr Gooder would have amounted to a demotion by comparison to the role he was performing at Chorleywood and that which he had performed at Rickmansworth previously, since at both offices he had been the sole manager in charge of the branch.
‘Mr Young lost his temper and did not manage the situation in an appropriate manner, in part because the HR advice he had received had exacerbated the crisis.’
Mr Walker’s claim of age discrimination was dismissed and his compensation will be decided at a later date.