Misinformation correction: M&S Staff

[BeeSourianteAgain]

M&S have responded to people's enquiries, here's one:

https://bsky.app/profile/dpdormouse.bsky.social/post/3lvuzitrplc2f

As expected the staff member was just doing their job, something that happens thousands of times a day in shops all over the country.

As per normal, the trans panic was manufactured.

I fully expect all the GCs and media pundits who were pushing all sorts of hate to apologise, but as a person on their second LGBTQ moral panic I know very well how it goes.

Lins77
Are you suggesting Sophie Molly is not a household name??!!

Never'eardof'im.

Quite genuinely. It must be some sort of blind spot.

Well now, the M&S employee has posted on Reddit, and, surprise surprise, says that:

• M&S changing rooms are gender neutral
• Any M&S employee can train as a bra fitter

Rest of Reddit post:

Thanks Sabrina.

That seems like not once did the management or this employee consider the safeguarding issue of a male person approaching a teenaged girl who was in the bra section. And despite articles and social media comments pointing out the issue… still can’t see the issue. Obviously, safeguarding training is needed.

The other thing that strikes me here is just how heavily involved this employee’s managers seem to be in this employee’s life. While this can be a positive thing, it also can be an issue too if any counselling on behaviour is needed. I think, this aspect of ‘being on my side’ while the issue is one that they all have assumed rather than the issue of safeguarding, seems to feed into this. I suspect the result is that manager and regional manager have failed to accurately identify the issue the mum is trying to highlight. Instead the managers lazily assumed it was a complaint driven by transphobia.

If that is a very recent reddit entry, the male employee still doesn’t understand the safeguarding issue at all and we are weeks in.

I said this on another thread, but he ignored the complaint - him approaching a girl in the bra department, and talked about bra fitting and the bra department isnt a female only space.

How did he expect the conversation to go? Apart from 'no thank, you' or 'Im looking for the food hall', its going to involve more bra talk, isnt it?

And hes let the girl know hes aware shes looking for bras.

If this was an unremarkable encounter of an employee asking a customer if they needed assistance then I'm surprised he remembered any details after 5 months.

exactly, that bit doesn’t ring true to me, he selectively remembers exact details of where the customer was and how they looked, which he knows makes him sound better.

@Helleofabore That Reddit post went up yesterday evening.

This is true. Except that the first complaint came through within weeks of the interaction. That would cause the interaction to remain top of mind for a while.

More gussied-up contemporaneous notes?

Is it catching?

Not that familiar with reddit but isn't the sort of place that you can claim to be anyone you want and post the first thing that pops into your head?

Things like ... said another manager had ripped up and thrown out all the papers with this article in the store

This sounds like fantasy - do M&S know that their managers are destroying the store's stock?

... and that the apology had been redacted once my boss and the regional manager had set the record straight

I guess that the poster means withdrawn rather than redacted. I have not seen anything from M&S withdrawing their apology - can someone point me at this? All I have seen is M&S follow ups where they further clarify their policy.

All seems a bit fishy

Thanks Sabrina.

That is an indication that the management still is not understanding the safeguarding issue then.

There is so much focus in that reddit post on all the falsely assumed issue/s. I consider that the entire management seem to need safeguarding training on this. However, I also think that the direct line management is not trying to understand the issue. They are focused on the outrage that they feel is happening to their friend.

dear god in heaven, 'I'm the male who acted in a creepy way and distressed an already unhappy child, pity meeeeeeeeeeee!'

Fantasywise, when I read it I thought ‘and they all stood up on the bus and clapped’.

I dont think it's him at all, not least because he says he's not aware that M&S have said that their fitters are now female only.

People on both the Reddit thread and here on the other thread are saying that they have checked out social media (apparently he originally posted his full name) and it does appear to be a real person working for M&S in that area.

Other thread where this post was first mentioned last night

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5393686-new-m-s-bra-fitting-policy?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Huh. I hadn’t read this thread. Just noticed Eresh you had the same reaction to the reddit thread that I did. ‘… and everyone clapped’.

It was crying out for it 😂

Ha ha ha
If that was the M&S manager he could be fired for giving a media interview after everything has died a death, so large pinch of salt needed.

Ha ha if the author is that man and a manager there is no way he would remember a single incident after months in any kind of detail because memorys dont work that way.

Unless he was not in the habit of speaking to customers in that way anywhere?

Lets remember the girl was shopping for underwear so was in the correct department.
M&S staff dont offer personal shopper help and dont hold stock off the floor if he was offering to find stock the girl mother would have as him to find X or get the women who worked in the department to help find X not "No thanks".

So its the wrong memory or did M&S have CCTV where they coiuld review the visual of the encounter and are refusing to supply it to the data subject?

And the language construction (lady and a teenage child etc) in the text is not on par with what I would expect from a (fluent) english speaking/english educated person who has been employed by one of the bigger uk retail stores and if I notice that something is off🙃

Then is he saying that M&S custromer service made up a whole story about events which did not happen and had different training and/or understanding of how bra fittings are carried out?

But good on the man for making claims on behalf of M&S.

Nice to see that as a manager he would have allowed male staff member to be trained and carry out a bra fitting on a 14 year old girl. (Not creepy at all)

I am sure he would also claim that as a manager following M&S policy his actions (allowing a male member of staff to put hands on the any part of the upper body of a 14 girl ) would have been supported by his manager the Regional manager and the Regional managers boss. ( that will give PR a work out for the next while).

If he is an employee and wrote that on a public site after M&S made a public statement about the bra fitting policy he can rest assured that he has shown a level of professional understanding that not even my cat 🐆 would envy and created a large hurdle for his future career path in M&S.🐈‍⬛

He has 100% proved the mothers point and showed that her issues around safeguarding the staff (and brand) was a concern.

As staff policy gaps:

• would result in a manager expecting a female member of staff to carry out bra fittings on the type of men who are currently booking appointments to harrass staff.

• could result in a male member of staff being charged with child sex offences against teen age girls or sexual offences against adult women. And I would vote guilty in the jury room and explain to others why "just following orders" wont work for pervy shop staff either.

He has 100% proved the mothers point and showed that her issues around safeguarding customers was a concern.

No dear M&S your policy should not allow this man or anybody to instruct a male member of staff to go into a small room where a 14 year old girl (or any woman) is alone and undressing and offer to measure her breasts. Or create a belief in staff (male or female ) that this socially acceptable and is not a safeguarding problem.

Even if this Reddit poster is genuinely the trans person involved, I’m taking his one sided, dubious rendition of events with a giant pinch of salt. If it is true, M&S have some problems with staff appropriateness at that branch that aren’t just based on this employee.

"If it is true, M&S have some problems with staff appropriateness at that branch that aren’t just based on this employee."

I see some significant issues arising there. Obviously, this is just this person's recounting of the relationships, but there seems to be some professional boundaries that might be missing.

Good point on the damage did ahe/he buy them first?

AI throws up na Irish branch a 2 euro cup of coffee was a sacking offence in 2012

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20294132.html

And why rip up and throw out

I wonder what M&S's staff social media policy is.

I wonder if it needs revising.

It's in here -section 21.

https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sites/marksandspencer/files/marks-spencer/corperate-governance/m-and-s-code-of-conduct.pdf

Sorry, don't have time to read it at the mo.