To think this journalist from the independent is rather deluded ?

[JifNtGif]

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/m-s-trans-employee-teenager-bra-fitting-rowling-b2802822.html#comments-area

M&S has confirmed that is not how they operate. They have confirmed that staff work across multiple departments.

Who said that?

They told the mother that he should have been on another floor

What help do you think a teenager needs in a lingerie department that a man can offer?

Inappropriate male behaviour apologist posts like yours actually helps. Highlights the importance of safeguarding measures (or the lack of) and lapses need to be dealt with accordingly.

You keep putting 'peaceful browsing' in quote marks like its being quoted from some sort of source. But it's not, as far as I can see.

What has actually got a source is a job description which describes 'proactive' (see when quote marks are appropriate?) engagement.

Poppycock.

People are assigned departments. There may be some movement if they are short staffed but training staff on the stock for every department is onerous and doesn't happen.

By the way you still haven't answered why you believe it is appropriate for a male to approach a teenage girl to discuss underwear with her?

M&S didn't think it was appropriate or they wouldn't have apologised.

Because they approached a child in the underwear section, which is extremely inappropriate. There is nowhere for the conversation to go which isn’t discussing her underwear and bust, as a PP illustrated. It’s like saying ‘he only asked for her phone number. It wasn’t at all sexualised. Phone numbers arent sexual! He didn’t ask her to take her clothes off! He only asked for a photo! Photos arent sexual! They were in public!’

it’s never ok to approach a teen girl in a lingerie section.

That means you too, Jannette.

Have you ever done safeguarding training?

There are certain conversations that you just don't even go near if you are a male and you are talking to a female, ESPECIALLY one who is a minor. This actually the principle extends to adult females talking to males too.

Even if your intentions are perfectly innocent.

The default position of safeguarding is to assume ALL people are a risk and potential pervs.

This includes me. This includes every other woman on here. It includes every adult male regardless of how they identify.

This is not difficult to understand. It is standard as training.

The fact you don't understand this and why it's important reflects on you, not for any one asking questions on here.

We SHOULD be asking questions.

Thank God for safeguarding training. It’s clearly very necessary. The more the better because some fools out there think it’s ok for a bloke to approach a little girl in the lingerie section.

@PlanetJanette
AI Overview -

Yes, Marks & Spencer (M&S) does assign staff to specific departments or teams. While there is a structured career path with opportunities for multi-skilling and movement between functions, employees typically work within defined areas. M&S also encourages business awareness and cross-employment between different areas of the company.

So why is it you think that it is appropriate for a man assigned to another department to approach a teenage girl to discuss underwear?

The employee didn't discuss underwear with her. She asked if the customer needed help. The customer didn't, so the employee went about her business.

You are right that - in M&S at least - employees are assigned broad departments (e.g. clothing and homeware). But it is not correct to say that they only work in one specific part of that. That accords with both my personal experience (family members who worked there, not me) and what M&S have said.

Well, AI must definitely know M&S' operating model much better than M&S themselves.

It's been used by a few different staff members both on here and on X. It's also totally in keeping with their shoppers experience.

But I'm sorry, just to check again ...

YOU think their policy is to encourage male staff members to 'proactively engage' with 14 year old girls, shopping for bras in the lingerie department. Correct?

How do you know what was discussed?

A male approached a teenage girl in the lingere department. That's creepy as fuck to anyone with a normal moral compass.

Agreed. There are certain conversations you don't go near with a child regardless of your sex.

'Is there anything I can help you with' directed to a child and her mother is not one of them.

AIBU: Is it ever ok for an unrelated man to approach a young girl in the lingerie section?

I feel like a Dr Seuss moment is building.

Again, what help do you think this man thought this teenager needed in the lingerie department? Help with school stationery? Or maybe…. underwear?

'Is there anything I can help you with' directed to a child and her mother is not one of them

It is in the BRA DEPARTMENT

I'm not sure I can take you seriously anymore. You seem to have no moral compass/decency at all.

So many ways to avoid answering a question of how it is ever appropriate for a male to approach a 14 year old girl in the lingerie department.

She wasn't with her mother, he scarpered when the mother came towards them.

Even if she was with her mother no decent man would ask to help a child with purchasing underwear.

Don’t get the wittering about restocking. Restocking is one thing pestering teenage girls is quite another.

Sorry I am cynical and jaded about men’s reaction to attractive teen girls having been one myself and now parenting two. One male shop assistant actually chatted by up my 15 year old with me standing right next to her 🙄🙄🙄.

Hey Janet, just so you know- you have no business speaking to little girls in underwear departments. If they need help, they will look around, make eye contact and ask someone.
They won’t then make a complaint to
M&S about it.

Oh FFS. You can tell if someone's talking to you.

If they're talking to both, you say 'can I help, and you look between the two' if you only look at one person, then you are either extremely rude, or you don't know they're there.

Edit because I can't be bothered to do another post to your obvious ridiculousness 'Janet'

If he was asking the girl if she needed help whilst she was in the lingerie department, actively looking at a display of underwear, then yes, that's exactly what he's offering to help with.

He wasn't exactly going to be asking if she needed help finding the cheese!

Apparently you know what happened better than that woman, despite not being there? Amazingly perceptive of you.

We've made this clear.

You are in the lingerie department. A store assistant asked if you need any help.

What exactly do you think the conversation is going to be about? Lighting in the home section? Where the fresh salad is?

Quit it with the whataboutery and gaslighting.

If a member of staff asks a customer in the lingerie department if they need any help they EXPECT the conversation will relate to products in the immediate vicinity. In this case lingerie.

To suggest anything different is a) utterly ridiculous b) fails on the above safeguarding principles.

There is no wriggling out of this reality unless you are deliberately trying to undermine principles of safeguarding.

Is that what you are trying to do? Undermine safeguarding? Gaslight us completely?

No. If you ask if someone needs help in the lingerie department you expect an answer related to lingerie.

We
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