It’s official; Marks and Spencer have fallen, the sequel.......

[MrsSnippyPants]

First thread getting full and and I continue to be interested in responses received to people’s emails and store visits.

Talking about this with my colleague yesterday, she said her DH gets annoyed finding wives in the communal area of the men's changing room, overseeing what outfits their partners are trying on in the cubicles.

This is inappropriate and unnecessary behaviour too, and M&S should be clamping down on that as well. It has to work both ways.

I'm not inclined to buy any of their knickers now, unless they come in sealed packets.

A boycott may cause damage, but surely it is more about image.

I agree. Brand awareness, once infected, plummets very quickly indeed.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD

I was told to fuck off by a member of staff and then just dismissed my complaint.

What were you doing?

I've had no response from Alice Needham to my reply to her, so I've emailed Archie Norman again. I don't suppose it will have any affect, but I'm getting more fed up, reading the pathetic responses other people have had. Do they really think they are so indispensable? There are so many other places to shop, and the slight awe they were held in for quality and value, when I was a child has long since disappeared. This is my latest email.

Someone has decided to jump on the trend and have managed to persuade others that this is a Good Idea - and probably that this is a Legal Obligation.

Their lack of clarity and openness on this - and event willingness to say 'we are listening to you' to 'we are considering this' is astonishing.

I wonder if approaching it from the angle of middle aged men feeling comfortable in the children's changing rooms would have more traction. Since they clearly aren't bothered about the comfort and security of women.

The one close to my office unusually has the mens and kids section on the same floor. There are 2 changing rooms on either side of the floor (at the back of each section, not 'sexed').

The case above described to a poster by an M&S employee of a dodgy man behaving in a strange and intimidating way and a young girl who potentially needed help. With said dodgy man marching into the changing room with the girl, and saying to the employee that they were gender neutral and there was nothing she could do, while preventing the girl being able to be alone with another woman who could have asked if she needed help.

He was quite right. All you have to do is say the magic words and women are defenceless and the law is on your side. It's a safeguarding nightmare.

I have just forwarded both of my emails and the standardised bog-off response to Archie Norman, pointing out that I normally shop for food at M&S each week but today, spent my money at Waitrose instead. I asked him not to offer the lame excuse that "other retailers are doing it" in his response as John Lewis is not. John Lewis/Waitrose is the standard I hold M&S to.

I also told the Waitrose Partner why I was shopping at Waitrose instead of M&S. He looked shocked at the very thought of mixed changing rooms but was quite relieved when I pointed out that John Lewis's policy had not changed. I asked him to relay that back to management as it will determine my future spending habits.

Anyone got a handy list of emails we can use for M+S execs?

I'm done with customer services. This is ludicrous.

This link seems to take you straight through to the chairman's email address, Vivarium.

[email protected]m_

Companies house (beta) lists all the company registered officers etc plus the persons with significant control (plus addresses) and it’s a nice long list.

Sorry, forget the rogue m and _ at the end!

I don’t suppose I can do a link (just google companies house beta)

This is the M&S leadership team.

corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/our-leadership-team

It would be very interesting to know what their Group General Counsel, ie their top lawyer, has to say on the legal aspects of this policy.

Are they a stonewall stamp-of-approval business?

well, that didn't take any research at all ...

careers.marksandspencer.com/inside-mands/we-are-supporting-stonewall%E2%80%99s-new-campaign-to-%E2%80%98come-out-for-lgbt%E2%80%99.

corporate.marksandspencer.com/stories/blog/be-yourself-lgbt-mands

Ho hum, they have a LGBTQ+ network person. I wonder if they have a disability network person too?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD

I'm disabled but there were no blue badge spots (actually it was orange then) so I parked in the pick up point and I was going to go in and tell customer service why I was there, but before I got out of my car, there was a banging on the window and I was told to 'move your fucking car', I tried to explain, he walked off telling me he didn't care if I reported him, and his name was 'John' and gave me another 'fuck off' for good measure.

Customer service got a manager who told me she'd been on a training course so she knew what it was like to be disabled.

I followed up with a letter to head office and I'm not sure I even got a reply.

Do you think they have 800+ staff members actively working for disability access? Inclusion - but it doesn't really mean that does it? Interesting how language is used.

From their website "...Alongside this, M&S is donating £20,000 to akt the national LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness charity and €1000 to BeLonG To Youth Services for LGBTI+ young people in Ireland. This amount forms part of M&S’s wider community donations, which last year exceeded £13.6m and the charities were chosen by people in the LGBTQ+ network at M&S.

I’m also proud that a number of colleagues from the LGBTQ+ network are also volunteering this summer with akt to help decorate one of their halfway houses in London which is an important part of us helping to give back to our local communities.

We now have over 800 active colleagues who use their passion and energy to shape the future of LGBTQ+ inclusion within the business. Working closely together we can work towards the goal of creating an environment where everyone can be themselves and bring their whole-self to work"

@sashh - wtf? (for John), and another 'wtaf??' (for the manager). But then you didn't use the magic word 'inclusivity'.

Then they would have made other assumptions and let you do/go wherever you wanted.

Another email sent. Mentioned past history as foster carer for teenage girls, all of whom were extremely vulnerable. Awaiting standard crap response ...

The thing is - they really really don’t care. It could have easily gone either way. I’m sure most of the staff think it’s bonkers and those who proudly wave the flag do so because it’s seen as not being a team player if they don’t.

They don’t care. I’m with Melania’s jacket in this one. They don’t care (but I do).

because it’s seen as not being a team player if they don’t.

And a "must" if you want to climb the corporate ladder, I think. There was certainly a lot of pressure in my last role to embrace the rainbow or else.