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Can a noisy office amount to harassment?
October 14, 2025
In the recent case of Ms Ritchie v Goom Electrical, an employee issued claims claiming that her colleagues’ “noisy and disruptive behaviour” in the workplace amounted to age discrimination and harassment. The claims were not upheld by the Tribunal as age-related harassment.
Our Employment Solicitor, Ramyar Hassan, explains the Tribunal decision and what employers can do to manage a multi-generational workforce.
Ms Ritchie was in her mid-60s when she first became employed by Goom Electrical as a Booking Administrator. Her colleagues were predominantly in their 20s and 30s. The role involved using the telephone and Ms Ritchie complained to her manager that she found the office a very noisy environment and that this was distracting when she was trying to make calls.
Ms Ritchie alleged that her colleagues’ conduct was unprofessional in that they engaged in personal conversations in the office when they ought to be working, kept their personal mobile phones on their desks and kept getting up from their desks. Ms Ritchie was told by her manager that she should concentrate on achieving her own KPIs and should not get involved in this.
Ms Ritchie complained that her KPIs were unmanageable and the background noise in the office could be heard on the phones, and she found this embarrassing and distracting. She raised this issue in her appraisal and also in a formal grievance.
Ms Ritchie subsequently resigned and brought Employment Tribunal claims for age discrimination and harassment, on the basis that she was the only older employee in the office and her younger colleagues were creating an intimidating environment for her through their behaviour in the office. She also brought whistleblowing and other types of claims.
None of Ms Ritchie’s claims were upheld by the Tribunal. The Tribunal considered that her perception of the noisy and disruptive behaviour as amounting to age-related harassment was not reasonable.
The Tribunal accepted that Ms Ritchie took her work seriously and wished to remain professional at all times, but they considered that her projection of this standard to all those with whom she worked was not reasonable and resulted in her having “unreasonable feelings of indignation about their behaviour when she did not have justifiable reason to do so”.
We recently covered this topic in our free 45-minute webinar: Bridging the Gap: Employment Law Insights for Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce. We’ll also be discussing equality, diversity and inclusion issues further in our upcoming webinar on 5 November 2025. These webinars form part of our wider free Autumn webinar series: Employment Law Unpacked. More information here.
If you are an employer and you need advice on how best to manage your workforce effectively, get in touch using our contact form or contact Ramyar Hassan on 02920 829 113 or rhassan@darwingray.com to find out how we can help you.
To speak to one of our experts today, please contact us on 02920 829 100 or by using our Contact Us form for a free initial chat to see how we can help.
