A senior female officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) was awarded a £2,000 payout after she was told by male colleagues to “grow a pair”, a High Court judge has revealed.
Squadron Leader Anne Rubery first submitted an official complaint of “bullying and discrimination” in her unit in September 2018, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) heard.
In the complaint, she alleged that she had been “mistreated, undermined, unsupported and mismanaged in the workplace by her chain of command”.
She also alleged that senior officers used “discriminatory and sexist language”.
Sqd Ldr Rubery’s allegations were dismissed by two Wing Commanders, named only as Wg Cdr Bradley and Wg Cdr Ward, who said she was “ballsy” and that she should “grow a pair”, it was heard.
A RAF investigation was subsequently opened into the comments made by her male colleagues, but it dismissed her complaints, concluding that their comments could be applied to “both genders equally”.
All her allegations of sex discrimination and harassment were dismissed by the Decision Body.
It also found that the comments did not meet the threshold of bullying, adding that Wg Cdr Bradley had made some “poorly judged comments” but they were not discriminatory.
Ombudsmanfound ‘overly masculine culture’
At this stage, Sqd Ldr Rubery received an apology and was told that the RAF would share “lessons” from her complaint to its diversity team, but she was told Wg Cdr Bradley left the service so could not be counselled.However, she was “dissatisfied” with the outcome of the Decision Body so an Appeal Body was appointed.
The Appeal Body dismissed her case.
Sqd Ldr Rubery, a serving RAF officer of over 30 years, then took her case to the official Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF).
Equiv to Major after 30 years is not “senior”. It is, rather, dead end. You got as far as seniority and (one) exam will take you and have been found wanting for any higher rank. Missed your promotion band and you’ll not be promoted again before retirement (at 55?). That is, good enough not to get fired but a duffer all the same.
That, perhaps, is rather more of this than being told to grow a pair.
>who said she was “ballsy” and that she should “grow a pair”, it was heard.
Isn’t that contradictory?
0-4 is where careers die.
And its 0-4’s that are pretty much where all the gender-bender and ‘I’ve been discriminated against’ stuff is happening in the US military.
You don’t see it in 0-3’s and you don’t see it in 0-5’s.
The services are full of dead end Majors/SqLdr/LtCdr. I even worked for one once and ran into a few others.
Sometimes it’s a gaffe or misdemeanour and the officer has a permanent black mark, other times its being too bolshie and ‘not fitting in’ and as also Tim says general inadequacy.
Trouble is, they usually have no useful skills, not even a decent ‘little black book’ to make them employable in the Real World.
Grow a pair, dear.
So 30 years ago she joined a male-dominated occupation, and is shocked, shocked that the men around her act like men?
Obviously that doesn’t apply now, the forces are being diversitied into nothing more than rainbow lanyards and critical race theory seminars.
’You got as far as seniority and (one) exam will take you…’
No, I suspect she got as far as her sex would take her, and she’s now weaponising it further.
Well, sorta. Military (officer) promotions. Don’t fuck up (not too grossly at least, everyone’s allowed their share of learning mistakes) from 2nd Lt to 1st to Captain are really just a matter of years. Then there’s the Major’s exam. Pass that (and people who retire at Capt, like certain horse loving gentry have been known to do are thicker than their horses) and Major is assured. Just time. Sqd L is Major equiv.
They’ll not then move you on up for perhaps 5 years. And if it’s not happened after 7 years – maybe 10 – then it’s not going to. So, it’s possible to hit 35 (say, perhaps 40, that sort of age) and know, absolutely, that this military career is going nowhere until forced retirement at 55.
People only join the military for the civil discourse, lack of crude insults, complete absence of sexism, and most definitely no swearing or shouting at any time. It’s almost as if £2000 is a special way of telling someone to go forth and multiply.
The US has an “up or out” policy. Not sure I entirely agree with this, as there are mid level positions that can be usefully filled by someone who is not fitted for promotion, but just keeping people on indefinitely until 55 and having to invent jobs for them in the meantime doesn’t seem very sensible either
*After* Major the UK also has an up or out policy. Make it to Lt Col and miss your promotion band and that’s that, you go.
rupert,
UK has (had?) a similar up or out policy. We lost a couple of good technicians at the corporal level but on the whole I supported the policy. You need fresh blood coming through to fill the higher ranks. If a number of corporal /sgt (capt/major) slots are blocked that’s fewer entrants to the promotion ladder.
One – not accurate by any means, but sorta, -ish, a useful way to think about it a bit – way to think of this is that the entirety of the system is a sorting mechanism. Which squaddie will make RSM? Which one pip Col of the regiment?
In the case of Wullie Robertson, which squaddie will become Chief of the Imperial General Staff?
Indeed so and from memory he’s the only one who ever made it all, all, the way.
Goldman Sachs has an up or out policy too. I expect it’s fairly widespread. Shell? Unilever? Tesco?
@Bloke in Wales – October 16, 2024 at 7:20 am
So 30 years ago she joined a male-dominated occupation, and is shocked, shocked that the men around her act like men?
Indeed… It’s the military fergodsake! The prime raison d’etre for which I’ve seen described as “breaking things and killing people as efficiently as possible” – it’s not a branch of the Social Services!… Surely not the place for those that consider a somewhat off-colour throw-away comment to be “bullying”. WTF was she doing there in the first place?
Perhaps “Grow a pair” referred to a possibly tiny bosom, to prevent junior airmen calling her, “Sir”. They were obviously just thinking of her.
I told you so.
I do find the military & its ranks curious. In the outside world one thinks about the job. If you’ll excuse the expression, if you’ve got a good toolmaker you want him toolmaking & you pay him what it takes to keep him toolmaking. You don’t make the only way he can get more money is by moving into management.
By the sound of the bint, the military rank structure has promoted her to a rank at which she’s incapable of performing. So she gets the pay commensurate with her period of service?
if you’ve got a good toolmaker you want him toolmaking & you pay him what it takes to keep him toolmaking. You don’t make the only way he can get more money is by moving into management.
But that *is* how the outside world works. “I see you’re an exceptional programmer, and really enjoy your job, we’re going to completely kill off your purpose in life by making you a manager. Hey, we seem to have no programmers left. Hey! Government! GIMMIE IMMIGRANTS!!!!!!!”
Here’s how she describes herself on LinkedIn (of course she’s on LinkedIn):
I am a current serving military officer experienced in leadership and management. I have a broad range of experience and skills. With an initial medical and dental background, my main area of expertise is working with people. Qualified as CIPD I bring civilian and military HR knowledge. I am a qualified sports massage therapist and have always maintained a portfolio approach to keep a broad skill set across my career. My aspiration is to continue in the people sphere and to assist personnel in achieving their goals and growth. I am also a business owner actively running a holiday let in Northumberland hosted by Sykes holiday cottages
The Russians must be terrified.
You must live in a different “outside world” to I do, jgh.
>So, it’s possible to hit 35 (say, perhaps 40, that sort of age) and know, absolutely, that this military career is going nowhere until forced retirement at 55.
In the US military, you can’t go past 30 years total (so around 52 for mando-retirement for officers, 4 years younger for enlisted) unless you hit E-9/Flag rank. And Majors/LtCdrs get like 3 ‘looks’ once they’re up for promotion and then its out – you can join the reserves and float for the rest of the time until you hit 65 and collect your retirement but you’re not staying on active duty if you don’t pick up 0-5.
I note that SCOAF is also an acronym for “Stuttering Clusterfuck of a Failure,” though this is usually rendered as SCOAMF, with the “M” standing for “miserable.”
bis,
Your toolmaker is first and foremost a soldier and is expected to be fit enough to perform those duties. In practice in the army the trades have their own promotion structures and as long as your guy passes his exams and army courses you’d find him as a long serving Sgt in a workshop somewhere until the end of his career (22 years) and probably moving to a civilian post somewhere.
Yes, BiS, I live in the UK, you live in Spain. I don’t know how it goes in Spain, but in the UK you get promoted out of your skillset and into something you have no desire to do and are incompetent in.
Simultaneously there’s also the opposite effect. “Ah, you work in ‘computers’, that’s IT innit, we’ve got this job unboxing computers and putting them on desks, that’s IT, you’re an IT worker, here you are. What are you complaining about, you said you work in IT, this is an IT job.”
No, I was talking about the UK, jgh. But presumably a different UK to you. I don’t know anyone who’s had that experience. Obviously I haven’t. The last time I was an “employee” I was in my 20s. But I certainly wouldn’t have treated any of my employees like that. I’m not that stupid. I don’t regard management as an asset, more as a reluctant necessity. I want people doing what they’re most productive at. Everybody I know thinks like that.
But having read a lot of your previous comments, I don’t think you’re really cut out for our world. We wouldn’t keep trying to flog a dead horse. If you can’t get a job with the talents you have, acquire some new talents that employers want. The world doesn’t owe you a living