In a bizarre incident, a woman sued her boss for marking his mail with ‘XX’ which she assumed was a cue to ‘kissing’. The lawsuit, however, was tossed by the London tribunal. In 2019, Karina Gasparova joined essDOCS, a paperless trade company, in their London office as an IT project manager. In the lawsuit Karina accused her former boss, the co-head of the company, Alexander Goulandris, of sexual harassment.
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According to the plaintiff, during a work call in March 2020, Goulandris constantly touched his hairs, whilst giving leering looks. Karina alleges that the work call was dragged by her former boss as an opportunity to chat her up. She then briefs about an email sent by Goulandris that had initials XX, YY, and ?? (question marks) in the content. The mail, by the boss asked her whereabouts of certain projects in bullets. However, Karina alleges that XX meant kissing, YY meant some form of sexual contact, and the Qs meant if she was ready to engage in the act. She also claimed that the boss sent her a workfile, with his initials ‘AJG’. She interpreted the initials as ‘A Jumbo Gentile.’
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The former IT Manager, also claimed how she told other bosses about Goulandris’ sexual advancement, and his poor treatment owing to her rejections. In another incident mentioned in the lawsuit, Karina mentioned that Goulandris touched her legs under the table while staring at her, making her anxious and uncomfortable.
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The tribunal observed that the ‘leg touching’ incident did happen, but it was found to be accidental and rather innocuous. Judge Emma Burns junked Karina’s claims. She remarked that the woman had a skewed perception of everyday events. The judge states that Karina had shown a tendency to make extraordinary allegations without any evidence whilst contradicting herself all the time. Karina was later made to pay her former employer essDOCs, a hefty fine of GBP 5000 or about 5 lakh rupee.
IT worker sues her boss believing ‘xx’ in email were kisses https://t.co/r0Dpr9ra2o
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 18, 2023
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