Manager Claimed Racial Discrimination After He Was Fired For Accidentally Showing His Genitals On A Work Call

In most work environments, it's frowned upon to show your genitals to those you work with, even accidentally. That goes for those working from home.

Sitting around in the comfort of your own home could sound to a select few like an open invitation to answer emails and handle work meetings without any pants and underwear on.

A manager at a financial services company was fired for accidentally exposing his genitals to his colleagues during a Microsoft Teams work call. (Photo by Cesc Maymo/Getty Images)

A digital production manager for a financial services company was one of those who liked the idea of only having to get dressed from the waist up, and it cost him his job.

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The unnamed former employee was fired on January 30 last year, according to the Daily Mail, following a Microsoft Teams work call with a consultancy firm on May 8, 2023.

This was supposed to be a bank holiday for the London-based company due to King Charles III's Coronation. Which this manager apparently interpreted as a no pants and underwear day.

I don’t blame him for that interpretation. Honestly, it could be interpreted that way by anyone, and who knows how many meetings before this fateful one he had taken in this state of dress?

The meeting took an unfortunate turn when he stood up to adjust a cable behind his computer and accidentally exposed his genitals to his colleagues on the call.

An investigation into the incident was launched after complaints from the manager's colleagues. He was eventually fired.

The employee who had worked for the company since 2020 and admitted that he didn't always "wear full dress" at home explained, "That was a bank holiday and l did not realize when l folded the laptop camera was on and pointing to the floor and then immediately shut down the camera so that don't know what was seen on the floor."

He added that, "It is just an accident and apologies."

As convincing of an argument as that was, he was still let go, but decided to take the firm to a tribunal with claims of "unfair dismissal" and "racial discrimination."

A tribunal at London Central heard that asking him to work during public holidays was racial discrimination, because while he holds dual Australian and British citizenship, he's from India.

His case was thrown out. The tribunal found that being asked to work on holidays didn't mean you didn’t have to dress appropriately. They also found that he had chosen to work the holiday.

"Even if he were required to work inappropriately, that is no reason for appearing in a state of undress," they noted. They also found that after he initially apologized for the incident, he later "sought to obscure or deflect blame" and did not "consistently show remorse."

You can’t show up to a meeting naked from the waist down, flash your junk in front of the camera, then go around deflecting blame without showing consistent remorse.

Technically, I guess you can do all of those things, but in most cases you're going to lose your job and any sort of appeals that follow. Bottom line, you can’t have your junk out at work.