An ex-keeper is suing Edinburgh Zoo bosses over alleged discrimination and "humiliation" she faced at work as a result of her ADHD. Lisa O'Hare appeared at the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal on December 1.She claimed she was subjected to "degrading" treatment and "excessive scrutiny" aimed at "constructing a case against" her. Ms O'Hara resigned from her post in February 2025 after starting in the role less than a year prior in April 2024.
It should be an open and shut case, because she sounds like a fucking nightmare to have had to work witrh, but you never know with tribunals...
Ms O'Hara was assigned to care for primates at Edinburgh Zoo and the court heard she had difficulty identifying individual capuchin monkeys due to her ADHD, which her superior took issue with.
Zoo bosses claimed identifying individual animals is a vital part of a keeper's job to ensure animal health and wellbeing.
Why do I suspect that the welfare of the animals will take second place when the 'disability' card is played? With the tribunal, anyway, the zoo management and her workmates thankfully weren't happy to put up with it.
Court documents showed Callum Gibson, Ms O'Hara's superior, said: "You have to start taking responsibility for yourself with training. It is not the rest of the team's responsibility to help you with this. There is only so much I can do to support this before you need to take ownership and communicate with others".
Ms O'Hara told the court: "I just didn't feel, given how it was a particular problem for my disability" how there couldn't be more flexibility, adding: "I felt it was unequally applied to me than others" and "there were other individuals" on the team who could identify the capuchins.
Maybe there were, but it was YOUR JOB to do so, not theirs!
She also alleged her colleague Kenna Valles repeatedly made critical statements regarding her timekeeping ability. In one instance, documents showed Ms Valles allegedly said "I'm just waiting on Lisa" in a "sardonic" tone. Ms O'Hara felt this showed her co-worker was "outwardly expressing annoyance with my disability and related difficulties with timekeeping" and "mocking my disability [and related issues] with timekeeping and hyper focus" resulting in "negative treatment and frustrations".
Are the other employees supposed to put up with someone who is continually later for work then?
A solicitor representing the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, owners of the zoo, mentioned that five employees had lodged complaints against Ms O'Hara.
Seems they weren't prepared to, yet they didn't have a Disability Card to wave.
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