UK woman sues boss for mistaking "xx" code in email, loses in court

While presenting herself before the jury, Gasparova said that Goulandris, was trying to chat her up while discussing work on calls.

In a bizarre incident, a project manager at UK's IT firm sued her head for sexual harassment after mistaking symbols like "xx", "yy", "???" in an email as codes for asking for sexual relations.

Gasparova took the organisation to the employment tribunal, claiming sexual harassment, discrimination, and unfair dismissal. (Representative image/ Istock)

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According to BBC (article beyond paywall), Karina Gasparova, project manager at London office of essDOCS, claimed that her boss, Alexander Goulandris, wrote offensive emails using terms like, xx, yy, ???? and renamed a work file with his initials 'ajg', depicting an abbreviation of "A Jumbo Genital".

Gasparova took the organisation to the employment tribunal, claiming sexual harassment, discrimination, and unfair dismissal. But to her dismay, the tribunal at the London Central Court rejected her claims by saying that her perception of events was “skewed”, the report added.

While presenting herself before the jury, Gasparova said that Goulandris, was trying to chat her up while discussing work on calls. She also claimed that email correspondence from her boss insinuated a desire to "engage in sexual acts".

Presented as evidence, the email from Goulandris read:

"Can you please complete the following:

The solution us currently used by xx Agris companies and yy Barge lines in corn cargoes in south-north flows in the ???? waterways.

Also, can you remind me of what the balance of the rollout will be and the approx. timing.

Thanks"

When describing the content of the email, Gasparova claimed that "xx" stood for kisses, "yy" for sexual contact, and "????" was a question requesting "when she would be ready" to get intimate with him, the report added.

But the tribunal said it was a genuine request for information and did not imply any sexual nature.

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Employment Judge Emma Burns told Independent (article beyond paywall), "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. Gasparova interpreted entirely innocent work-related conduct, some of it accidental, by Goulandris as having a sinister intent."

The panel finally threw out her claims and ordered her to pay a compensation of £5,000 costs to essDOCS.