A woman sued her boss for sexual harrassment after mistaking ‘XX’ for ‘kisses’, believing question marks were code for sex and saying that the name of presentation file name referred to “a jumbo genital”. Karina Gasparova, an IT worker in the UK, claimed that Aleksander Goulandris, the co-head and former CEO at paperless documents firm essDOCS, had used question marks as code for “to engage in sexual acts”.
During an employment tribunal in London, the former IT project manager accused her boss of trying to “chat her up” while on a work call.
She said he ran his hands through his hair whilst “staring” at her on the call, according to The Telegraph.
The claims were rejected by a judge-led panel as a “skewed perception of everyday events”.
Gaspaova also claimed Goulandris’ renaming of a draft presentation file with “ajg” in brackets as meaning “a jumbo genital”.
She also said he “shouted at her” for “rejecting his advances” and his refusal to have lunch as a sign he “only wanted sex”.
She also tried to garner support from her female co-workers by asking if the boss had leered, winked or touched them but nobody came forward.
In April 2021, she submitted a detailed grievance against her boss claiming sexual harassment, discrimination and unfair dismissal but eventually resigned after her claims were rejected twice.
“Our primary reasons for rejecting her account of events were that we considered her perception of everyday events was skewed,” said employment Judge Emma Burns.
“She demonstrated a tendency to make extraordinary allegations without evidence and she contradicted herself in a way that could not be attributable to a fallible memory.
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The ruling also determined that Gasparova had misunderstood her boss’s work-related conduct with some of it being deemed accidental.
This included touching of legs under a table and shouting “I need date, date, date” in the context of a deadline having sinister intent.
The former employee was also order to pay just over £8,000 in costs to essDOCS for failing to comply with tribunal procedures in time.
