NHS doctor who admitted hating British weather chat fired for lack of communication skills

A Belarusian NHS doctor, who admitted struggling with “small talk” and British weather chat, has lost her unfair dismissal case after being fired for communication issues.

Dr Maryna Anatolyeva’s £100,000 lawsuit against the health service was rejected by an employment judge, who found she was sacked because she “failed to meet the standard required”.

The 47-year-old had faced accusations of poor communication skills and confessed that she found “small talk” difficult and “could not understand the British fascination with the weather”.

She also told an employment tribunal that her female boss told her that being a consultant was not “suitable” for her as she was a single mother.

Her claim for unfair dismissal was ultimately thrown out by the tribunal.

The employment tribunal heard that Dr Anatolyeva was a doctor in training between August 2018 and August 2022, and she had been placed at St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust, based in Merseyside, became part of Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2023.

Dr Anatolyeva was on a postgraduate training programme specialising in anaesthetics which was supported by NHS England.

An earlier employment tribunal hearing, held in Manchester, was told: “[Dr Anatolyeva] herself accepted that she found certain social interactions difficult.

“In particular she did not find it easy to engage in ‘small talk’, and could not understand the British fascination with the weather.

“She believes this may be cultural, as when she was growing up in Belarus people did not chat about such a topic.”

Dr Anatolyeva argued that she was treated less favourably than other trainees because of her race, namely being a Russian speaking person from Belarus, and because of a disability, namely neurodiversity.

An employment tribunal found: “It is clear from all the evidence, that many of those who have experienced communication difficulties with [Dr Anatolyeva] have queried whether these have their origins in her nationality, or her cultural background, and/or her accent.”

Both of these claims were dismissed by the employment tribunal at an early stage.

A new tribunal hearing was told that multiple experienced consultants at the trust felt Dr Anatolyeva’s “communication, leadership and teamworking skills were not to the standard expected”.

In July 2021, concerns were raised at an appraisal that she needed to develop multiple skills including “communication”.

Her progress was assessed in January 2022, when issues with these skills were again thought to need improvement.

She was warned in July 2022 that if she did not improve, she would be dropped from the training programme.

Dr Anatolyeva was then dropped from the training programme in October 2022 as she had been unable to meet the standards required to continue.

Her appeal against this decision was dismissed.

The tribunal accepted that she had received positive feedback from supervising consultants on a number of occasions, but there was a ‘pervasive theme’ in multiple examples of negative feedback which noted issues with communication, leadership and teamworking skills.

Employment Judge Callum Cowx said: “Non-technical skills of particular importance are leadership, teamwork, communication and situational awareness.

“Again, the vital importance of such nontechnical skills is obvious in emergency, critical care or surgical environments consultant anaesthetists are routinely required to work in.”

After being sacked, Dr Anatolyeva claimed her female boss Dr Karen Butler had told her “being a consultant is not suitable for me as I am ‘a single parent and from different cultural background’”.

At the tribunal, she admitted Dr Butler “would not have made the comment directly, but it is how [Dr Anatolyeva] interpreted what she meant”.

Dr Butler “emphatically denied” making any comments like this, and the tribunal found her evidence was more convincing than Dr Anatolyeva’s.

EJ Cowx found: “[Dr Anatolyeva] was not unfairly dismissed.

“She failed to meet the standard required to complete a long and highly demanding training programme.”

Her other claims were also dismissed.