IT worker ‘who was bullied by women staff told to man up’
AN It worker was told to ‘man up’ after bullying female colleagues made his life hell, a tribunal has heard.
Peter Farrar is suing his university employers for sexual discrimination – as he claims he was treated differently because he is a man.
Mr Farrar, 53, said he was ‘screamed at’ by a woman he worked with ‘to the point where her blood vessels were bursting’. He also claims that he had to perform many hours more work and was forced to take an extra assessment to get the job – all because of his gender.
A witness statement from Mr Farrar, read to the tribunal in Reading, Berkshire, described how he was bullied by two women within his team who said he was ‘ menacing, scary looking, and lazy’.
But his boss told him women were more emotional and less likely to bottle up their feelings, he claims.
Mr Farrar, from Basingstoke, began working at the university of Creative Arts in October 2016 and told the judge that he quit his job the following April due to sexual discrimination. He is suing the university, in Farnham, Surrey, for £40,000, and also claims unfair constructive dismissal.
He told judge Andrew GumbitiZimuto he was aggressively shouted at by colleague Rebecca Curtis, but she faced no disciplinary action from line manager Robert tregaskis because he favoured women. He added: ‘ Robert said I needed to accept that girls are just like that. that they are emotional and I should put up with it.
‘Girls could say whatever they wanted in baby voices to Robert and he would talk softly to them and help them. they all worked together to make my life hell, once deleting programs that I needed to use on my computer to do my job and ganging up on me.’ He added that Mr tregaskis told him he should ‘man up’ and ‘get over’ it.
Mr tregaskis admitted he had made a sweeping generalisation about women being emotional, but categorically denied that he told Mr Farrar that he should man up.
He said: ‘I think it’s fair to say that women can be more emotional ... than men, who tend to bottle up their emotions. But I did not say he had to put up with being shouted at excessively, that is clearly a ridiculous notion.’ the hearing continues.