Compared to Darth Vader by a colleague, this employee receives 34,000 euros in compensation

She didn't exactly appreciate being placed on the dark side of the Force . A British woman has been awarded nearly £29,000 (€34,000) in compensation by her former employer after the judge ruled that being compared to Darth Vader by her colleagues constituted harm, reports The Guardian .

Lorna Rooke was employed in a blood donation service for the NHS, the British social security system, for which she had worked since 2003. The incident took place in August 2021, when her team was invited to a team-building exercise during which they had to answer a psychological questionnaire inspired by the Myers Briggs questionnaire. This method classifies one's personality and perception of the environment according to several criteria, including introversion, emotional control, intuition, etc.

But the chosen questionnaire was themed around the Star Wars saga and its famous characters. While Lorna Rooke left to take a phone call, her colleague filled out the test in her place and arrived at the result for Darth Vader, which she quickly shared with the other colleagues.

While the test didn't paint such a grim picture of the villain, associating her with a self-centered personality who was also capable of uniting a team, the judge found that "making the connection [...] was insulting" in this context. She also noted that it was "hardly surprising" that the test, completed by a third party and shared with the rest of her colleagues, was hurtful to the complainant, the BBC reports .

Lorna Rooke told the court that the public humiliation made her feel unloved by her colleagues and led to her resignation the following month. However, she lost on this point, as the judge ruled that her departure could not be explained by this incident alone.