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An employee who claimed she "resisted a male dominated and 'boys club' culture" for years wasn't forced to resign after her employer found a request to "get the coffees" didn't amount to gender-based discrimination, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

In October last year, the WSP Australia senior principal engineer gave three months' notice of her resignation. She subsequently claimed unfair dismissal, arguing she was forced to leave because the employer had failed to protect her psychological safety.

But the employer denied constructively dismissing the employee; in fact, it initially told her it couldn't accept her resignation until it had explored "every single possibility" to keep her in the business, and that her quitting would "leave a huge void".

Before Commissioner Chris Simpson, the employee claimed she was "one of the last remaining female engineers" in the organisation, "having resisted a male dominated and 'boys club' culture, attitude, and mentality for several years"...