Woman ‘sacked from £200k a year job because she didn’t talk about football’
A £200,000-a-year sales director was sacked because she failed to discuss football over boozy dinners like ‘one of the lads’, a tribunal heard.
Adrienne liebenberg was fired from international packing conglomerate DS Smith after being told her ‘leadership style was not working’.
But 45-year- old Mrs liebenberg – who previously worked at oil and gas giant BP Castrol – claims she lost her job because of her gender.
In a witness statement to the Central london Employment Tribunal, Mrs liebenberg said she was marginalised at the FTSE 100 firm because she did not want to join in with the male banter and work style.
She claimed key business decisions were often taken over ‘boozy dinners’ with a ‘gang’ of senior male employees – where the norm was ‘bonding, drink, and football’. Mrs liebenberg said she found it difficult to join in with these events, because she felt ‘alienated by the focus on drinking and talking about football’.
She said she felt pressure to join in and added: ‘I did not believe that I was accepted as “one of the lads” and I did not feel that I was capable of playing such a role.’
She was hired as director of
‘Deep sense of despair’
global sales, marketing and innovation in March 2017 – and was given a ‘special joining award’ of £100,000 to spend on shares on top of her six-figure salary.
But tensions quickly grew between Mrs liebenberg and her line manager Stefano rossi, the company’s packaging chief executive – and she was sacked in december 2018. Mrs liebenberg claimed Mr rossi was a huge football fan, and would often interrupt meetings to discuss football or watch highlights.
She said she could not ‘remember a single day’ where Mr rossi did not follow the football scores, watch videos on his phone or interrupt ‘to discuss Inter Milan or a particular player’.
Mrs liebenberg, who has since co-founded a digital time capsule company called NotForgotten, noted that she was often the only woman in the room at ‘male-dominated’ dS Smith.
out of the 35 leadership roles in sales and operational positions, only eight were reportedly filled by women.
She added: ‘I believe that at the time of my dismissal, I was the most senior and highestpaid woman.’
Zimbabwe-born Mrs liebenberg, who lives in south-west london, said she was upset as she felt she had been treated differently for being a woman.
She claimed it ‘destroyed’ her belief that working hard pays off and said it filled her with a ‘deep sense of despair that women and men are not equals’.
Mr rossi and some of his senior colleagues, including the company’s chief executive Miles roberts, are respondents to the discrimination claim.
They are adamant that Mrs liebenberg was sacked because of poor performance rather than sexism.
In a statement to the tribunal, Mr rossi said she had a ‘dictatorial approach’ and a ‘lack of respect for senior colleagues’.
The firm, Mr rossi, Mr roberts and Hr director Tim Ellis all deny sex discrimination.
The hearing continues.