to feel uncomfortable being served by woman with tourettes that kept swearing at me?

[racmac]

I went to a well known high street store and was served by a lady who had tourettes. I have no problem with this or any of her ticks BUT she kept saying cunt and wanker - i dont use these words in front of my children so dont expect others to AIBU in expecting that she shouldnt be serving customers?

It was rather disconcerting to be told "thats £20.00 please, cunt, wanker"

Racmac

FioFio sorry but have to disagree
" If anyone was to start flinging abuse back to the woman the department manager would step in. M&S also tend to have a different class of clientelle (sorry if that offends people but they aim their products at a higher income bracket, which I suppose means people are better educated)"
some of the worst comments on this thread and others have been so called(as we only have their word for it) educated well off people, if you take that as a straw poll, it shows that educaion does not equal compassion.

fio fio you are assumimg wrong about people on lesser wages being less educated. But I do agree with you that a debate must have two sides .

reallytired I do understand your point, you are right in the fact that this person is able to do the work and should not be forced to give it up because of her disability, but I do not think it is in anyway insulting to discuss the fact that some people will abuse her verbally if they are not aware of TS.

I do not consider myself one (idiot) because I had not heard of it until recently and I am pretty sure that I and all the other "ignorants" in my position do know quite a few things about a lot of subjects you might never have heard of. That does not make YOU an ignorant either. We are just people who have had different life experiences and sharing them should not become the battle of who is better educated.

Sorry, FioFio LOL

Well I wouldn't worry too much about the foot in mouth thing FioFio. It is very contagious but pretty harmless unless of course you happen to desagree with the MN "PC watch" in which case you and are are going to be flammed but eh...

MN "PC watch" ??
Fio I do get what you are saying, but just disagree the better educated means better understanding.
(I keep checking no TTR email)

oh no are we doing that "palsy" thing

oh dear there is an ever growing daily mail contingent on MN it seems.

tbh, I thought that on the whole this has been a good discussion....

it is always good to challenge your own thinking, isn't it....sometimes we may are discriminant/disablist/ageist, racist without even realising,as long as our thinking gets challenged about these sort of issues we can only learn from it and widen our horizons....surely...!

This threat has certainly made me think about this issue more and shown me what I would and wouldn't find acceptable, but made me also look at myself closer and challenging my reasoning for my instinctive feelings...

not sure I am making sense...

You make lot of sense ChristmasFairy .

Sometimes you limit people's opportunities when you try and "protect" them. Ie. you try and protect them from failure than never give them an opportunity to be a sucess. Too much cotton wool stops people leading normal lives.

I am sure that this lady doesn't have learning difficulties. She has made the decision to work at M & S with a full understanding of the risks. I find it strange that a lady with vocal tics would want to work in customer service, but its her life and her decision to take the job.

M&S have made the decision to employ her and its really none of our business. As a customer you have a choice, you either shop there or you don't.

good old M&S, I worked there for a while and it was great for equal opps.

This is a really difficult dilemma, and while I don't think the OP is being unreasonable in wanting to shield her dc's a little from such strong language, I applaud M&S for being open minded enough to give the lady a customer facing role.

Couldn't agree more, moston. This woman could do loads of useful, fulfilling, valuable jobs. What in the name of all that's holy have they plonked her in a sales role for?? Seriously not a good idea.

Oh, missed a page or two there
Will go and read more!

OK, up to speed now + considerably enlightened.

I have an autistic son and I can think of lots of jobs he really isn't the best person to do - bright and wonderful though he is. I hope that one day someone isn't obliged to give one of them to him, for his sake. (Not directly comparing autism and tourette's, I hasten to add, just musing on equal oportunities legislation.)

Part of me still thinks that people who involuntarily say cunt and wanker much are not the best people to have in customer-facing roles.

But, of course, this saleswoman is undoubtedly perfectly capable and charming and no-one here seriously thinks she means to call customers cunts. So M&S's customers will all get an education with their shopping. Bargain.

PBx

makes a change onthewarpath.....

"I have an autistic son and I can think of lots of jobs he really isn't the best person to do - bright and wonderful though he is. I hope that one day someone isn't obliged to give one of them to him, for his sake."

An employer is not obliged to give a job to anyone. All the are obliged is to have a fair recruitment proceedure. Ie. they cannot discrimate on a disablity when its irrelevent to the job.

There is no reason that I cannot work with children, just because my hands shake sometimes. I am very good my job.

However I think I would find it hard to hold a job down as an artist.

RT do you really think involuntary swearing is irrelevant in a customer-facing job? Does everyone really think it?

read half of thread

can i just agree with everything that needmorecoffee and 2shoes has said up till ive read?!

op .i feel for you-id hate to be so small minded.

you can

why thankyou very much.

"RT do you really think involuntary swearing is irrelevant in a customer-facing job? Does everyone really think it? "

Its ultimately up to M & S who they choose to employ. I have never met her and I don't know how bad her tics are. Unless you meet someone face to face you cannot make an assessment of their suitablity for a job.

This lady must have had an interview for her job and passed that. She must have fitted whatever criteria M & S were looking for. Prehaps M & S aren't that bothered by vocal tics. If you as a customer are bothered then shop in a different store.

What is against the law is for an employer to see the word "tourettes" or "autism" on a form and put it in the bin without reading it. There are varying degrees of a conditon.

To have a blanket ban on people with tourettes working in customer service would be as unreasonable as having a blanket ban on black people working in customer service.