Waterstones come out as GC and fire TRA for social media post

[woman2womanmeetswomanparrish]

Fantsatstic news, Christina Dalcher has sucessfully managed to get this TRA fired from their job at Waterstones for X comment.

https://x.com/TillyLovesBooks/status/1810337926850445453?t=WABH0ieBQdnUtaQL5FVlyQ&s=19

Yeah,it's tragic.

I've never worked in a bookshop, but I have worked in front line retail and hospitality. I was actually vair jalous of my uni friend who had a job in waterstones, that was a golden ticket - one of the best jobs that you could reasonably get as a student. And you got a discount on books!
There's nothing wrong with being a retail assistant or bookseller if you like - I'd far rather work in a bookshop than a pub (and I've done that too).

I'd love to work in a bookshop again if it wasn't for the whole retail side of it :D :D by which I mean having to work bank hols/Christmas etc.

But Tilly has clearly staked her entire identity on being an 'important book person' hence the devastation. Maybe she shouldn't have attacked an author then. Really hope this just quietly goes away.

I didn't realise that Tilly had locked her Twitter. She blocked me a few months ago, when I disagreed with some TRA stuff she posted.

she can still be an important book person on the instagrams, and hopefully all her SM followers can buy lots of books using her affiliate links and that can help her out in the meantime.

It's obviously devastating to lose your main job, and I hope she gets on her feet quickly, I honestly do. Losing your job is a horrible way to find out after fucking about on the internets.

i rather think that Instagramming is her main job tho, and the bookselling in the shop was only weekends.

Nevertheless she has been fired while on vacation which isn't great. She's travelling while having Covid which isn't great. She advocates censoring people she doesn't agree with which isn't great. In short: nothing about this is great. Except for the writer (i have no opinion on her opinions since i don't know what they are) who seems to have made a lot of sales.

It seems hiding books has been a problem at Hove Waterstones for a while. This review is from 4 months ago.

I just find this behaviour so flipping childish.

Not just Hove. There were loads of book shop employees bragging about hiding gender critical books on X last year. It really is pathetic.

Effectively Tilly seems to have 2 jobs: a weekend job as a shop assistant and a self employed job as an influencer.

It seems these jobs have merged in her head into one, and talking about books has become her whole identity.

Plus she is in a little social media bubble which is mainly about people telling each other they are fabulous.

Sadly for her, Waterstones were only interested in her employment with them and she has found this out the hard way.

And just look at the state of this thread. Anyone would think this wasn't about helping women at all (this is supposedly a feminism/women's rights forum)

feminism is not about supporting women qua women. I do not support women whose political views damage women as a class. The internalisation of precisely that form of patronising, woolly liberalism got us where we are now - it’s distinct and dangerous ideology which exploits female socialisation to disempower women from actually advancing their interests.

tilly has it all - woolly liberalism, twee ‘be kind’, quirky bookshops and fucking whimsy In spades. The four tent poles of the ‘be kind’ patriarchy 😁😁😁

It always comes as a shock to the be kind brigade when they get a taste of how they treat other people. The cloak of righteousness is supposed to protect them from any negative consequences of their actions.

Somehow it's fine for others to be treated appallingly but outrageous for the be kinders to have even the slightest hint of anything other than praise

Um, you don't KNOW she has had no history of warnings! It seems given how quick this was, this was the last straw. They've clearly had problems with her for a long time.
Attacking a feminist and advocating BOOK-TEARING or bookburning or bookbanning is the actions of a FASCIST. I don't think a shop that sells.... books, wants to be associated with a fascist bookburner. It was MAJOR slip. Not minor.

I'd rather be called a 'bigot' which seems to mean no fucking thing these days, (by an actual misogynist fascist bookburner), than be a hateful misogynistic fascist bookburner who takes delight in harming women and girls basic human rights. I know who the good guys and the bad guys are.

I don’t understand how the existence of trans MPs or whatever refutes my point about the emotional tenor or TRA discourse.

I have no idea what your saying.
Wanna try again?

There's an old saying.
Treat others how you would like to be treated.
If Tilly had done this, she'd still be employed and happy.

Interesting. I read the comments last night. Comments on this thread have been a lot more supportive and understanding of Tilly.

It seems the Independent journalist who wrote that piece is also an author.

the only comment i remember from the Indy article was from the Author asking them to clarify when and how they had "tried to contact" her.

There are some concerning aspects to this story. Is it ok to fire someone when they are not there? Do we want companies to have that sort of power? or was she on a casual kind of contract where that's ok (I have no idea how the world of work functions in England).

As Alice might say "curioser and curioser"

the only comment i remember from the Indy article was from the Author asking them to clarify when and how they had "tried to contact" her.

I saw an exchange on Twitter between the author (Christina Dalcher) and two UK journalists who reported on this story. Dalcher was asking why one of the journalists hadn’t tried to contact her for comment and the journalist’s reply was that they’d tried contacting Dalcher’s representation but had received an out of office email. A second journalist also claims to have tried to contact Dalcher for comment via Twitter but it was at 02.30am American time so Dalcher was asleep. Apparently that was all the work journalists were prepared to put into getting Dalcher’s comment. Dalcher asked why they made no attempt to contact her directly via email but there was no reply at that time when I was on Twitter yesterday and I can’t find one at the moment after doing a quick search.

Dalcher has since put a tweet out saying she has no comment regarding Tilly and that other journalists have been able to find her email address and contact her directly.

Humtum states elsewhere that they are "Forever championing trans policy and EDI representation as part of healthy progressive debate" which makes sense of pp's difficulty in following what is being said. I don't think EDI representation as currently practised is progressive at all, for starters.

There's a lot of appetite for kind, considered and progressive conversation around gender. The more accountability, data, peoples voices (all voices), evidence can only be a good thing

I am sick of people calling for others to be kind.

And the last sentence. OMG. The reaction to the Cass Report tells you everything you need to know about Humtum's "progressive conversation" thinking accountability, data and evidence are a good thing.

Unless I have misunderstood, which is easily done given the post.

We have absolutely no idea of the background to why this person was fired, what her work contract was, the t&cs, her history. And obviously Waterstones can't share that.

So we'll probably never know unless she takes them to an ET.

We do know she instagrammed her dismay at getting her worst bout of covid 2 days before her holiday - cue lots of ‘poor you’ comments. But she travelled anyway, discussing public toilets on the way, spreading the virus. She filmed herself weepingly asking for another job and implied she would suffer badly monetary wise - so much so she later said people were replying, offering her money. Various posters have said it was only a weekend job. She implied the author whose books she wanted to bin wasn’t as worthy as they had less followers than her. And updates the filming to show her reaction to all the well wishes and big reaction she’s been getting - whilst making sure to mention you can click on links which indirectly get her money. All this filming being done whilst she’s staying at a French chalet with stunning views.

What a plonker. I am half expecting it not to be real it’s so ludicrous.

Update from Christina Dalcher https://x.com/CV_Dalcher/status/1811054035773825035

"Couple of quick notes:

1. I have now been contacted by journos at The Guardian (2x), Bookbrunch, The Times, The Bookseller, & other media outlets regarding the situation between Tilly Fitzgerald and Waterstones.

In each case, I have responded with no comment.
The 24 June tweets (at least from my end) remain publicly available.

1. I have not locked/protected my account, deleted tweets, restricted replies, embarked on a blocking spree, or hurled epithets at those who are upset at the situation. I cannot say the same for the accounts held by others, including two of the journalists who claimed to have contacted me for comments.

1. I did not personally see a wide ‘call for sacking’ on the part of ‘gender-critical’ accounts between 24 June and 8 July. I have seen, however, several statements and questions that presuppose such a call.

1. Once again, I blame this war (because it very much looks like a war) on the industries and media who have—for years now—allowed one side’s opinion to rule the roost via boycotts, strikes, downed tools, smear campaigns, and other mechanisms. I do hope it eventually comes to an end."

That is a very dignified update from Christina Dalcher.

So this has not been the first time she has been a bit mouthy on SM.

"Side of a bus" applies here (unless it is blatant lies about £350 million and the NHS)