Former SocGen Woman of the Year Gets Nothing After Firing

(Bloomberg) -- An executive who was voted woman of the year at Societe Generale SA lost an employment lawsuit where she was seeking 5.2 million euros ($5.8 million).

Zeina Bignier was dismissed after colleagues accused her of being a disrespectful control-freak and her bosses decided she was unfit for her management role. Bignier’s demands were dismissed by judges at the Paris employment tribunal on Thursday.

Bignier says she was harassed by her managers and compliance officers and then fired out of the blue in 2016. The former SocGen executive argues she’s still suffering from burnout three years after her dismissal.

A 21-year-employee at the Paris-based bank, Bignier was named Woman of the Year in 2006. In the early 2000s, she set up and led a unit focusing on public-sector origination and worked on restructuring the Greek debt.

Societe Generale said in an emailed statement that the court backed its decision to dismiss Bignier.

Valerie Meimoun-Hayat, a lawyer for Bignier, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A court official read out the result of the ruling on the phone but the full details won’t be available for weeks.

At a hearing in her unfair dismissal case last month, SocGen lawyer Arnaud Chaulet began by admitting that Bignier was a strong performer. But he said concerns about her management style had existed for a long time and intensified in the months before she was fired.

Specifically, one junior colleague alleged she called him a “dimwit” in front of others and, on another occasion, yelled at him during a meeting to prevent him from sharing his views, according to Chaulet. The SocGen lawyer said the Bignier also had problems with higher-ups, and at one point told her boss that “you lack courage.”

Bignier’s lawyer acknowledged her client had a “headstrong personality,” but said the accusations were based on hearsay.

“During a 21-year-career, when there’s tremendous stress, an outburst can occur,” Meimoun-Hayat said during the March hearing. “You have to understand the environment in which Bignier is accused of controlling her teams too much.”

Meimoun-Hayat said the stress of the job became worse as the banking industry became more focused on compliance after financial disasters such as the record loss caused by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel.

“This is the Kafkaesque world of intense pressure from compliance,” Meimoun-Hayat said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gaspard Sebag in Paris at gsebag@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

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