A City executive earning £1 million a year is suing his investment firm, claiming that it gave him such an unreasonable amount of work that he fell into a deep depression and has been unable to work for three years.
Jeremy Armitage, 58, joined State Street Bank and Trust in 1992 and rose through the ranks to become global head of FX trading.
However he has blamed a new strategy at the firm prioritising a "do-more-for-less" culture for triggering a bout of depression that forced him to take more than three years off work, according to a High Court claim.
Ron O'Hanley, CEO and president, implemented a transformation strategy after his arrival in 2019 that Mr Armitage said effectively doubled his responsibilities with no extra pay or staff. Mr O'Hanley had worked for McKinsey and Co and brought with him a "do-more-for-less" culture, also known as the "transformation strategy".
The scheme involved "ranking staff performance and terminating lower performers while passing on their workload to the highest performers", while enforcing "draconian measures" to monitor activity in the workplace, the court documents allege.
Mr Armitage said he became increasingly stressed, as he could not see how to meet what he claimed were excessive performance expectations, regardless of how hard or how many hours he worked.
He claimed he repeatedly told his line managers about his excessive workload and unrealistic deadlines, saying he could not cope, but nothing was done and bosses rejected his pleas for extra staff, citing a hiring freeze.
By this time, over 2019 and 2020, Mr Armitage was managing around 120 staff across nine countries. While his previous trading role had been demanding, he said, he also took on responsibility for the European FX business, as well as sales, research, chief operating officer and chief administrative officer, and business-risk activities.
When his performance began to decline Mr Armitage told his managers he was struggling, but alleged that they ignored his concerns.
He then took on further responsibility when the Brexit project manager left and the work went to him in March 2020.
Mr Armitage complained that he was operating under "negligent working conditions" as he managed his excessive workload.
His doctor noted serious concerns about his mental health on Aug 1 2020, recording that Mr Armitage was desperate, tearful and bewildered, and said that he felt trapped.
When his request for redundancy was refused Mr Armitage said that he asked for an unpaid sabbatical to address his mental health, but claimed that this too was rejected. In his High Court claim, Mr Armitage said an "entirely foreseeable deterioration" in his mental health followed.
A request for a four-week August holiday from work was approved in June 2020 by line manager Guy Kirby, subject to approval by his line manager Rajen Shah. But on July 30 Mr Shah cancelled the holiday, days before it was due to start, Mr Armitage claimed, going against his belief that the firm could be trusted to meet staff's personal needs.
A later data subject access request Mr Armitage made to the firm revealed that an email sent that day headed "psychological safety" named him as someone whose mental health was of concern. The email said: "Starting to get pretty worried about the mental wellbeing of a few of our staff, including Jeremy. The harder we push people the more likely it is some people will quit or have a breakdown, which in turn means that the people left have an even harder time and their chance of quitting or having a breakdown increase."
Mr Armitage has claimed that the firm's refusal to allow him to take a sabbatical or extended leave triggered a catastrophic psychological breakdown and an acute and severe period of depression that has prevented him from returning to work since being signed off on Aug 3 2020.
His psychological reaction was exacerbated, Mr Armitage claimed, because he believed managers were conspiring to force him to resign without compensation, which was why they had imposed such unreasonable workloads on him.
The firm failed to conduct a proper risk assessment and continued to impose an excessive workload despite knowing Mr Armitage was showing signs of an impending breakdown, he claimed, as well as failing to provide him with a safe volume and system of work.
He claims that State Street's denial of liability for his psychiatric injury has worsened his symptoms. State Street, which is contesting the claim, declined to comment.
Mr Armitage is seeking damages of more than £200,000 for his personal injuries and is also seeking damages for breach of contract of £147,500, saying he was underpaid between 2018 and 2020.
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