GP receptionist nicknamed ‘Panic Janet’ loses unfair dismissal claim

A GP surgery receptionist was given the nickname ‘Panic Janet’ by her laughing colleagues because she was prone to worry at minor problems, a tribunal has heard.

‘Stressed’ Anthea George was mocked by her ‘loud and raucous’ workmates for repeatedly asking questions about how to do her job.

Her female boss also told her that she needed to wear new glasses after making a mistake and joked that she wouldn’t ‘find a man’ when she told her she was taking time off to attend a funeral wake.

Ms George eventually left the family doctor’s practice in central London complaining that she had been bullied.

But an employment tribunal has now dismissed her claims that she was unfairly dismissed.

The hearing was told Ms George began work at the Clerkenwell Medical Practice as a receptionist and admin worker in 2016.

However, she found her colleagues’ behaviour at work hard to deal with, the tribunal was told.

‘(She) found certain aspects of the role and working in the small administrative office stressful.

‘The room was noisy because the telephones were constantly ringing and the staff often joked and laughed and talked to each other and had the radio on. They were often loud and raucous.

‘(She) felt that that was not appropriate behaviour in the workplace and found it difficult to concentrate in that working environment.’

Within a year of starting, Ms George’s manager Joanne Estabrook had offered her a different job at the surgery working in a different room.

But she repeatedly had to go back to her former office to ask questions. This led to her being dubbed by colleague Alexis Herbert ‘Panic Janet’.

‘(She) often went into the administrative room to ask questions…and appeared to be stressed,’ the tribunal heard.

‘The staff felt that she made things more complicated than was necessary and worried unnecessarily over minor matters.

‘(Alexis) Herbert gave her the nickname Panic Janet and called her that. The others laughed when she did that and (Ms George) laughed along with them, although she did not like it. She did not complain to anyone about it.

‘On one occasion when (Ms George) returned from holiday and went to ask questions, Ms Estabrook said, “Oh, you can tell Anthea’s back” and everyone laughed.’

The central London hearing was told that the relationship between Ms George and Ms Estabrook deteriorated as the receptionist kept making mistakes.

In one instance an exasperated Ms Estabrook was accused by Ms George of telling her to ‘f*** off home’. However, she and other colleagues who witnessed the incident denied she had sworn.

In October 2018 Ms Estabrook told Ms George that ‘it may be time to start wearing those glasses that have been prescribed for you’ after finding mistakes in her work again.

And later that month the pair clashed again after Ms George failed to complete some of her work on time.

The surgery even brought in a mediation service to try to improve the tensions between the pair.

But Ms George started to look for other work and resigned in March 2019.

The tribunal dismissed Ms George’s claim that she had been constructively dismissed by the surgery as well as another claim that she had been discriminated against for blowing the whistle on what she claimed was poor practice by Ms Estabrook.

In its judgement the tribunal said of the ‘Panic Janet’ nickname: ‘(She) did not complain to anyone about the nickname. She laughed at it and gave the impression that she was not offended by it.’

It concluded that the length of time between the row where she been told to ‘go home’ and her resignation meant that trust between her and her employer had not broken down to the point it could have been considered constructive dismissal.