Critical feedback | Performance review describing 'messy work' was not discrimination, tribunal rules

A senior HR manager who accused his employer of disability discrimination over comments about his “messy work” has had his claims dismissed by an employment tribunal.

Mr Thomas Shevlin brought claims of discrimination arising from disability and harassment related to disability against his former employer, John Wiley and Sons Ltd. The East London tribunal found that Shevlin, who had ADHD and dyslexia, but did not disclose it during his employment, failed to show that critical feedback in his performance review was discriminatory.

End-of-year review under scrutiny

At the centre of the case was a comment made by Shevlin’s manager, Ms Rebecca Roycroft, in his 2023 end-of-year performance review. In response to the question, “what could the colleague have done differently to achieve or exceed their goals?”, she wrote:

“When Thomas is very busy he has a tendency to rush the work which he is doing, which can culminate in typos in emails, use of capitals when they shouldn’t be as well sentences that don’t make sense.