Employee wins case against company for being called 'Aunty/Uncle'
There's a fine line between being professional and making someone feel uncomfortable...
The Gettysburg College website says that on average, people spend "90,000 hours at work over a lifetime".
Naturally, you spend more time with your work colleagues than your family. This may be where the 'work husband or wife' originated. A report in Psychology Today shared that there is an increase in work relationships that fit into this category in 2023.
This is all good, but some managers and/or employees fail to maintain professional and respectable relationships with their employees. The lines get drawn, then they get fuzzy, and sometimes management and their subordinates fail to adhere to professionalism.
This happened to a person who was being called 'Aunty/Uncle' by her supervisor and found it disrespectful and demeaning.
According to Legal Leaders SA, the female employee felt her supervisor was mocking her and her orientation.
This made the employee feel uneasy, so she filed a grievance against her supervisor for discrimination based on orientation. Weirdly enough, the supervisor shared the same orientation but continued to ridicule the employee, calling her 'Aunty' or 'Uncle' or both 'Aunty/Uncle' while at work.
The supervisor is said to have called her by the above terms in front of other staff members. The supervisor did apologise, but because the employee felt upset over the whole affair, she opened up the case at the CCMA.
The Commissioner said that the remark, 'Aunty/Uncle', was most likely used to "raise a laugh" and deemed inappropriate.
The CCMA ruled in favour of the employee and found that her dignity was impaired. Therefore, she was compensated R10,000.
Legal Leaders SA, a company that shared the video, focuses on labour law and protecting employees' workplace rights.
They shared some key learnings from this case, saying that managers must always treat their colleagues respectfully and capture their case in writing if they feel discriminated against; this will help your case.
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