Fired for sleeping in a sauna? UK techie wants ₹964 crore compensation

A senior technology executive in the UK, who was dismissed after falling asleep in a sauna during a work trip, has been allowed to pursue £76 million (about ₹964 crore) in compensation. If awarded, it could be the largest payout in a British employment tribunal case.

Shannon Burns, former Vice-President of engineering at Gitpod — a software firm now owned by OpenAI — was fired after a 2023 company retreat in Austria where she got drunk, forgot her room key and ended up sleeping in a sauna, according to an Independent report.

In 2025, the Birmingham Employment Tribunal ruled that her dismissal amounted to disability discrimination, noting that Burns has ADHD and that the company failed to make reasonable adjustments.

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Compensation claim and legal hurdle

Following the discrimination finding, Burns filed a compensation claim calculated at £76,071,992 (about ₹964 crore), based on forensic estimates of lost future earnings, injury to feelings and an uplift for the employer’s unreasonable failure to follow procedures.

Gitpod applied to cap her potential award at £1 million (approximately ₹11 crore) and to require a £1,000 (approximately ₹109,114) deposit to pursue anything above that, but Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon rejected the application, allowing Burns to formally seek the full amount.

Why the figure is so large

The £76 million figure is not a final award; it is the amount Burns is permitted to pursue at a separate remedy hearing where the tribunal will decide the actual payout. Her legal team argues that, given her senior role and the high-paying tech sector, her career trajectory would have generated tens of millions in earnings over time, and that the discrimination effectively ended her tech career, contributing to PTSD and forcing her out of the industry.

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If ultimately granted, the sum would dwarf the largest known UK employment tribunal award to date, reported at around £4.58 million (about ₹50 crores). The case has drawn attention for its unusual facts, the disability discrimination angle, and the scale of the claim against a company now under OpenAI’s ownership.