Dundee man leads fight against period poverty

[PrimAndProperPearlClutcher]

“It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need it.

... '“I was chosen as the best person for the job and for me, it’s irrespective of gender.

“Having a guy can’t be a bad thing – it grabs the headlines, but that’s not the reason I was put into post!” Jason continues.

“For me it’s about driving the discussion from a young age so boys and girls are included and there’s no hiding it away because that keeps it as a taboo topic.

“I want to be seen as a positive male role model.”'

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/3593497/dundee-man-leading-period-poverty-fight-how-to-get-free-products/

Account managers aren’t usually in sales. Usually a Business Development Manager is the sales arm who goes out and secures new clients. After the sale has been secured, an account manager is usually the liaison between company clients and all the internal teams in the company needed to meet client needs. Often their jobs have project management and purchasing elements as part of their liaison function.

He was also a well being officer in a school working with young people as well. So he would have implemented similar types of government initiatives at the individual school level before. So as a regional project manager, he can empathise with the well-being officers who will be implementing the period dignity initiative at the colleges in the region.

This role isn’t marketing per se as it’s not selling anything. So marketing experience would have transferable skills, but is not essential to a project management role.

Why not for support functions like this? Haven’t we demanded it’s not enough to not be racist, but white allies also need to be anti-racist. As in take action. What is a white ally to do? Sit on their hands? Or commit to fighting racism by taking a supporting role under the leadership of an ethnic minority to support that ethnic minority. It’s the same for sexism issues like fighting for dignity in periods for girls/women. There is a place for feminist men imho in such support roles.

Well I was talking analytics rather than DS but you will know that simply using the app to order the free products stores a significant amount of info, which can be shared not only by the app owner but too often with other apps, especially SM apps.

I'm astonished that you don't understand how this can been an issue and why it needs to be clear up front, or why its not enough to just shout "GDPR" and "FOI" neither of which will do quite the job you seem to think.

Sorry missed your post asking for it - there were facebook posts and a tweet I saw which seem to be deleted - no idea why. But the PR posts are all over including multiple quotes from the man himself and as project lead he would have had to approve the content of his PR.

I assume that the quotes direct from him and including pictures of him and beardy bro telling women how ot have periods are not fabricated by evil women trying to do the poor man down.

HOnestly not sure if you genuinely do not grasp that its about a working culture and mindset, or are simply trolling at this point. I'll leave you to your fun.

Funnily enough after over 30 years in Sales, Account Management and Marketing I do have some understanding of these roles.

The picture being painted of Period Bro being tortured by the inquisition or whatever to reveal a user’s period data and then bravely using the skills he learned in tobacco companies to lie about it is diverting but the wide-ranging ignorance from someone who’s spent this whole thread presuming to tell women how things work is… well, expected, I suppose.

I should have put a “satire warning” on those posts, for the literal readers amongst us. They were all tongue in cheek because really am sick of the rampant insinuations regarding the ethics & morality of this person all because of the company they have worked for in the past. Which is really quite a privileged view to take because most people cannot be overly picky when you need a job to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.

Then why did you deliberately list his account management experience as if it were sales experience? And why did you deliberately erase his experience as a college well being officer?

Oh, wait I see why……these are inconvenient truths.

If the role is just project management admin, that can be done by anyone, why does it need a press release and for Jason to talk about his favourite subject (Jason) at such length? If it's just maintaining spreadsheets of free sanpro outlets why does it require illustrating with a picture of the employee engaged in earnest chitchat with end users?

Very much looking forward to the FoI response. I work in admin (university) and we don't fuck around with recruitment process rules. The reputational damage would be horrific.

I assume that the….pictures of him and beardy bro telling women how ot have periods are not fabricated by evil women trying to do the poor man down.

Theres no audio on the photos and no photo caption saying what (if anything) was said when those quite obviously staged photos took place. In other words anyone saying they know what they were talking about (or even if they were talking) is writing fiction.

Most Account Management roles I have come across (and recruited for) have an element of Sales. In some cases it’s a title given to try and hide the fact it’s a Sales Role. Sorry if that truth is inconvenient for you. And while a College Welfare Officer is perhaps more relevant unless it’s related to this field it’s not great prep for the role in itself
You are taking all this very personally though, which is odd unless you are Jason or his mate Katie

I agree the FOI could be quite damaging. Hopefully that will get to the bottom of why a candidate with no relevant skills compared to the job description was appointed.

A man teaching boys about periods - good.
A man trying to teach girls and women about periods and menopause - bad.
Tbh if there were two roles and his purpose was to engage boys, it would be fine.
But the implication that the most educated and engaging person on periods and menopause is a male - feels like deliberate trolling. It definitely doesn't centre end users.

It doesn't centre users.

They are still failing to read the room, even with a loud "no!" coming from females.
Same old, same old.

Well we are both taking it personally then if that comment is meant to be about writing multiple posts on the topic and participating in conversations about it on the thread. You’ve hardly been the wallflower, posting an opinion and moving on either.

Most Account Management roles I have come across (and recruited for) have an element of Sales. In some cases it’s a title given to try and hide the fact it’s a Sales Role. Well, yes there is an element of sales in account management because as part of managing an existing client you make them aware of add on services and you encourage them to continue the contract with you when it’s time to renew or move on, which is sort of selling only to an already captive consumer. But there’s also elements of project management as well.

So why only highlight an irrelevant element of account management?

I think if his account manager role did not have any PM element and was as you speculate a job mislabelled to hide a sales role, then the board of women that interviewed and hired him would not have said to the media that he had PM experience in both the public and private sectors.

I think you're confused @C8H10N4O2 .

I haven't "shouted" either "GDPR" or "FOI" once. In any of my replies to you.

I'm just pointing out that you're repeatedly spreading misinformation by claiming women need to download an app which will harvest their personal data.

Those living in poverty are often the most vulnerable to misinformation, especially health based. They do not need to download anything to access the free products and no one is tracking their menstrual cycle.

Perpertuating fears around a scheme that will drastically improve QOL for certain groups is crap.

Funnily enough though discover one of the essential elements of the PS was •

Experience of devising and delivering marketing and promotional campaigns to reach various audiences

@Discovereads

I think you do need to accept that this man is unlikely to have been the best candidate for the position, based on what we know. It's important be flexible and update your opinion as more evidence comes out, right?

I'm all for a hypothetical conversation about why men could take up logistics/compliance/PM/admin roles in the period dignity project, but this is completely overshadowed by how and who they recruited for this position.

@Discovereads Why are you fighting so hard for this man? It's been made quite clear that his job is to lead women and girls on the period dignity project, which will involve engaging with women and girls in the "community". Women are pissed off about that for a number of good reasons, which have been explained convincingly and at length. You banging on repeatedly about PR and project management don't change these facts. So I'm wondering, why are you so invested? Are you this man, or connected to him? Why don't you care that women don't want this? What about the girls and women for whom dignity would mean never having to engage with a man about their periods or menopause issues? Do you only care about this man, or are you just a tiny bit worried that women and girls might be getting fucked over here?

Can people honestly not see quite how many women are affronted with the idea of a man employed as a period dignity officer??

Grinning at the camera, and hoping to be a 'good male role model'?

Are you not noticing how many women you are having to persuade? You are having to pick apart the job spec, pick apart the photos, pick apart his past roles.

Women are affronted, by a man in a role that is meant to promote their own dignity.

It's perfectly acceptable, you know.

It's been made quite clear that his job is to lead women and girls on the period dignity project, which will involve engaging with women and girls in the "community".

@beastlyslumber I think this has become a sticking point, but this really isn't true if you go by the job specification. The role is led by working group, the recruited person is supporting the project group in implementing activities which will allow engagement.

Based on the press release, I can understand why people have this impression however.

The JD and PS do refer to "creating and facilitating community engagement activities". In my world "facilitating" means leading - you are the facilitator of the event, it doesn't mean 'doing the logistics for someone else to front up'

Well if he isn't doing this engagment, I'm not sure why we've been repeatedly told that he is.

If it looks like a duck, and all that.

The job description has been posted at least twice. Why are posters still pretending that it doesn't include leading on engagement and on activities? It's there in black and white.

• engaging project members and participants


• Represent the project team ... with internal and external partners.


• identifying, developing and facilitating events and activities that engage our communities and young people

Maybe they have no experience of these types of roles but leading on engagement and facilitating events that engage - both mean engaging with end users. It also means identifying the best way to approach and raise topics. Tasks to which he seems singularly unsuited since a large part of period stigma and shame, and an exacerbating factor on period poverty is specifically related to men.

@Cloud9isnowclosed Here it is in the job spec, amongst all the other responsibilities the person is accountable for. I've worked as a PM and in my experience, this doesn't mean he'd be running the patient & public involvement events.

However, based on the press release it sounded like he was very keen to get involved in direct public engagement.

Accountabilities / Areas of Responsibility

1. To develop and implement a project plan in collaboration with the educational institutions and Local Authorities. 2.To deliver the vision, aspirations and transformations in awareness, engagement, culture and inclusiveness which underpins the Period Product Act.
2. Develop strong, positive working relationships with all members of the Working Group to gather localised information on a regular basis, ready to report and promote.
3. Coordinate marketing campaigns to raise awareness of our regional approach to eradicating period poverty, creating a strong and consistent media presence (social and traditional media) to normalise and make visible.
4. Coordinate the creation of a project landing page, gathering and providing all necessary information relating to the availability and location of products in our communities, associated activities and opportunities and links to nationwide information. 5. Provide support to the project team in identifying, developing and facilitating events and activities that engage our communities and young people, creating opportunities for learning, networking, and accessing free products, (with a particular focus on identifying barriers to access and reducing the stigma around menstruation and period products.
5. Represent the project team on all period poverty arrangements, processes and outcomes related to our regional activity with internal and external partners.
6. Develop and monitor milestones and timelines for the overall project and individual activities.
7. Report on a regular basis to the project team and key partners on progress, developments, and challenges including identification of any shortfall in provision and solutions
8. Work in different environments (both office based and outreach), at times best suited to the community (including some evenings).
9. Other duties as required or as determined through project developments.
10. Ensuring that all tasks are carried out in accordance with the College health and safety policy and procedures to maintain a safe working environment.