An estate agent who quit his job after being offered a desk he believed undermined his authority has won damages against his employer.
Nicholas Walker, 53, was left feeling ‘upset’ at Robsons Estate Agents in Hertfordshire after being told he would sit at a ‘middle’ desk rather than the ‘back’ desk – typically where the manager sits.
The tribunal heard that when Walker’s boss heard about his opposition to the arrangements, he said he could not believe “a man of his age” was ‘making a fuss’ about where he would sit.
But the judge ruled that forcing senior employees to work at desks that are unbefitting of their status is wrong and could amount to constructive dismissal.
Akua Reindorf, an employment tribunal judge, concluded that asking senior staff to sit in a part of the office that they argue is designed for junior employees could “logically” lead them to conclude that they have been demoted.
That type of office seating arrangement could “destroy or seriously damage” a senior employee’s relationship with bosses and lead to a successful legal claim, the tribunal ruled.
The hearing in Watford was told that Walker was branch manager at Robsons from 2017. In 2022, he was moved from an office in Rickmansworth to a branch in Chorleywood but the following year Walker was asked to move back because his replacement had resigned.
Daniel Young, the estate agency’s sales director, decided that Walker would share the branch manager role with a more junior colleague but this was not discussed with the senior estate agent, who, the tribunal heard, thought he was returning to his former role.
A junior colleague, Matthew Gooden, had already moved to the back desk by the time Walker returned and Walker was told he had to use the middle desk, which he saw as a demotion to “assistant manager’ – a position in the office that he rejected.
In its ruling, the tribunal concluded that Walker was right to see the desk issue as a “demotion”. The judge said it was a “logical conclusion for him to draw” and that the boss’s conduct “was likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust and confidence”.
Walker will now be awarded compensation, with the sum to be decided at a later date.
