Her New Boss Ignored Her ‘Good Morning’ Three Times and Gave Her Staff Secret Pay Rises — Then a Tribunal Ruled He’d Forced Her Out

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There are a lot of ways a workplace can go sour, and most of them don’t start with a dramatic shouting match. They start with small, petty choices that signal, “You don’t matter here.” In one UK case, an employment tribunal heard how a new boss repeatedly ignored a manager’s “good morning,” then moved quickly to undercut her authority in front of her own team.

Nadine Hanson, a recruitment manager and regional operations manager in Scunthorpe, has now won claims including unfair dismissal after resigning from Interaction Recruitment Ltd. The details come from the source material, which reports the tribunal’s findings that the employer’s conduct was unreasonable and contributed to a breach of trust and confidence. Compensation is set to be determined later.

Strip away the legal terms and you’re left with something most adults recognize: a leader decided early that he didn’t want someone around, and he went about it the coward’s way—by making work life miserable until she left. The tribunal’s job was to weigh whether that pattern crossed the line into constructive unfair dismissal, and it found that it did.

A new owner, a snap judgment, and a cold welcome

The tribunal heard that in September 2023, Interaction Recruitment acquired the business Ms Hanson had been working for. Managing director Andrew Gilchrist, 62, travelled to the Scunthorpe office to meet her and two colleagues who reported to her. After a “get to know you” meeting lasting less than an hour, the tribunal found he formed what it described as a “snap judgement” that she wasn’t pulling her weight.

That kind of quick assessment is common in leadership, and sometimes it’s even necessary. But it has to be tethered to facts and basic fairness—what does the person actually do, what are their results, what’s the context? The tribunal found there hadn’t been proper information gathered about her role or a proper discussion with her before he decided she “did very little work” and he was “not happy.”

“Good morning” three times, ignored three times

Days later, Mr Gilchrist made an unannounced visit to the office. Ms Hanson arrived late because she had a medical appointment, and the day was busy, with candidates in the office filling in forms for interviews. The tribunal heard that she said “good morning” to him three times and he ignored her each time.

That might sound small to someone who’s never worked under a tense boss, but adults know how calculated silence can be. A greeting in the morning isn’t a poetry reading; it’s basic respect, the kind that keeps an office human. Employment Judge Sarah Davies later found it was “implausible” that Mr Gilchrist didn’t hear Ms Hanson, concluding he deliberately ignored her despite the repeated greeting.

The meeting: pushing her phone aside and suggesting she leave

After the ignored greetings, the pair went into a meeting room. Ms Hanson attempted to show him her phone with evidence of her medical appointment, but the tribunal heard he pushed it to one side. He then suggested, “I suggest if you don’t want to be here that you leave,” and she responded that after 20 years working for the company, the only way she would be leaving was if she was made redundant.

Mr Gilchrist later told the tribunal he couldn’t remember whether he said hello because it was busy, and said he thought he said hello to everyone. The tribunal found his evidence “wholly unconvincing.” It also heard the meeting became heated as Ms Hanson tried to explain how she performed her role.

If you’ve managed people for any length of time, you know the difference between a firm conversation and a personal power play. A boss can address lateness, performance, and expectations without shoving someone’s explanation away—literally or figuratively. Once a leader starts communicating, “I’ve already decided,” the relationship usually deteriorates fast.

Secret pay rises for her staff, within the hour

Within an hour of the confrontation, Mr Gilchrist emailed Ms Hanson’s two direct reports to give them a pay rise, without discussing it with her. The tribunal heard she was “humiliated” because she wasn’t informed. Judge Davies concluded the situation was not urgent and that he simply did not want Ms Hanson there anymore.

Pay decisions are management decisions, and owners can raise wages. But going behind a manager’s back to do it—right after dressing her down—looks less like generosity and more like a message: “You’re not the one in charge, and I’m going to prove it.” That’s how you corrode authority inside a team, and it’s how you isolate someone until leaving feels like the only dignified option.

The judge’s reasoning mattered here. She didn’t treat the ignored greeting as a stand-alone legal bombshell, but as conduct “calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence,” and as something that could contribute to a fundamental breach of contract when combined with everything else.

Resignation, anxiety, and withheld sick pay

In October 2023, Ms Hanson handed in her eight-week notice. She said she had been made to feel undervalued, undermined, and that it caused sleepless nights, upset, and anxiety. During her notice period, she was signed off with anxiety, the tribunal heard.

It didn’t stop there. The tribunal heard Mr Gilchrist refused to pay her sick pay because he didn’t believe she was genuinely unwell. Ms Hanson brought a claim for unauthorised deduction from wages on that point, and she won.

Whatever someone thinks about sickness absence in the abstract, a boss doesn’t get to run on suspicion and vibes. If you’re leading people, you handle absence through the proper process and with a measure of restraint. Assuming the worst, especially in a tense situation you helped create, is a quick way to turn a hard season at work into something that breaks a person down.

What the tribunal decided, and what happens next

The employment tribunal, sitting in Leeds, upheld Ms Hanson’s claim for unfair dismissal, finding she had been forced out through the employer’s conduct. Judge Davies described Mr Gilchrist’s behaviour as “unreasonable” and found he had been deliberately undermining Ms Hanson to try to force her to leave. The tribunal also accepted that deliberately ignoring her greeting, in context, undermined trust and confidence.

Ms Hanson is now in line to receive compensation from Interaction Recruitment Ltd, which the report notes has 30 offices across the UK. The exact amount of compensation will be determined at a later date. In other words, liability has been established, and the next stage is working out the remedy.

A plain lesson in leadership and basic decency

You don’t need to be a lawyer to recognize what happened here. A new leader arrived, made an early judgment, and then used small humiliations and behind-the-back decisions to pressure someone into leaving. The tribunal called it what it was: conduct likely to undermine trust and confidence, stacked up until resignation wasn’t really a free choice.

For anyone managing people, this is a sober reminder that “soft” behaviours aren’t soft at all. A greeting, a fair hearing, not undercutting your managers in front of their teams—those are the basics, and basics are where character shows up first. If a man can’t manage his impatience and pride in a meeting room, he has no business acting surprised when the fallout ends up in a tribunal.