Tech boss who slept in sauna on work trip allowed to seek £76,000,000 payout

A high-flying tech executive who was discriminated against after she slept in a sauna has won the right to seek £76 million compensation.

Senior tech engineer Shannon Burns could be in line for a landmark payout after winning a disability discrimination case against a company now owned by ChatGPT developers OpenAI.

Last year Ms Burns won a disability discrimination case against Gitpod, having been sacked by the firm after she had to resort to sleeping in a sauna during a work trip.

Ms Burns, who earned £220,000 a year, was fired from her VP of Engineering post over three years ago but is still fighting to receive compensation.

Ms Burns – who has developed PTSD after her sacking and has had to leave a career in tech for good – is seeking £76 million based off ‘forensic’ calculations of what she could have earned in the highly-lucrative industry.

Gitpod attempted to restrict the amount she could seek to £1 million using a legal application described as ‘oppressive’ by her lawyers.

But now, Birmingham Employment Tribunal has dismissed their application, meaning she can formally seek £76,071,992 compensation.

Gitpod has also been ordered to disclose to Ms Burns what the recent sale of the company to OpenAI was worth. Gitpod did not tell Ms Burns how much it was sold to OpenAI for even though she has shares in the firm, which are thought to be worth £2.6 million alone and could rise to £21 million after four years.

Currently, the biggest known award in UK Employment Tribunal history is £4.58 million. Ms Burns, who is American, was seen as a ‘trailblazer’ in the tech industry who worked for Silicon Valley firms including Slack and Lyft.

She was headhunted by Gitpod in late 2022 and appointed to the key leadership role of Vice President of Engineering, on a £220,000 salary with a £78,000 bonus per year.

The tribunal heard that Ms Burns – who has ADHD – went on an off-site team-building event in Lofer, Austria, in April 2023. CEO Johannes Landgraf and other staff drank alcohol during the trip, Ms Burns said, and one evening Ms Burns, who had also been drinking, could not access her room as she forgot her key.

Her ADHD caused her to have a ‘great deal of forgetfulness’ and she would ‘persistently’ lose items. That night she ended up allegedly having to sleep in a sauna, and after the trip CEO Mr Landgraf said he was concerned about her ‘lack of professional accountability’, she added.

In June 2023 she was sacked, with Ms Burns saying: ‘My male colleagues were drinking alcohol/drunk at the offsite but I was the only one who was dismissed.’

Last year, Birmingham Employment Tribunal found that Ms Burns was dismissed as a result of her disabilities and she won a disability discrimination case.

Ms Burns seeks £76 million and relies on calculations made in her ‘schedule of loss’ – which examines what she could have gone on to earn.

As she earned such a huge salary and the tech industry is so lucrative, it is estimated that her total future losses are over £59 million.

Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon said: ‘She has an exceptionally high pay history…. Her case is that but for the treatment she suffered at the hands of [Gitpod] she would have continued to have a highly lucrative career.

‘[Her] schedule of loss is based on past and future predicted loss and she has included the amount for loss of salary but also loss of equity because if she had continued her career in this sector part of remuneration would have consisted of equity.’

She added: ‘My view is that Gitpod are attempting to use aggressive litigation tactics to drag out the process and wear her down.’

A full compensation hearing will be held at a later date, pending Gitpod’s appeal of the previous tribunal ruling.

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