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.

Could be. But then I didn't know they had cafés these days. I've never noticed one in our local branches.

If that is the M&S employee, and the mother's comments seem to imply that it would be (and assuming true, although as he is writing from his position as a manager in M&S there are further problems if he is lying), then:

why was a man taking bra returns from the till point into the lingerie section? Do they not have enough female staff?

the level of special treatment this man is getting with everyone going out of their way to personally support him, up to the level of the Scotland stores director; his boss ripping up all the papers in the store with the article in it and sending him special presents when he's in hospital for face feminisation surgery – where does this leave employees with legally-protected GC views? How does M&S fairly deal with and protect its GC employees?

he says M&S fitting rooms are gender neutral - so there are no female spaces then, M&S. He goes in and checks on the condition of the fitting rooms, although not one that is occupied (OBVIOUSLY, DUH). Which means potentially he is walking around the area between fitting rooms and into next-door cubicles while there are women undressed and trying on bras. Do M&S really think this is appropriate, and what their female customers expect and want?

he says the M&S bra fitting service is regardless of gender identity for colleagues and customers - the only conclusion then is that in M&S men can be trained as bra fitters and female employees can be expected to fit men with bras. Even if the M&S recent announcements say this is not the case, he is telling us that this is what has been happening. (I love that this is the "perhaps the biggest lie" of the article, which is what ruined his day off! His day off? What about women's lives and needs?)

There are hundreds of thousands of possible jobs in this world, and very many in retail. It is such a puzzle why trans identifying men need to work in and around lingerie departments.

There might be a display in the food hall? I think I have seen them there.

Yep - food hall had papers last time I went - admittedly a month or so ago

Yes as pp said, in the food hall, at the entrance.

Yes there are no sexed changing rooms at M&S anymore. And they have very flimsy curtains.

The last one I went to didn't have any changing room in the children's department. The only changing room on that floor was in the mens department.

It really is past time that they got rid of the curtains and at least had lockable doors.

The whole thing's yet another example of how trans activism trashes everything it touches.
A major retailer having to balance the emotionally incontinent demands of a member of staff alongside a horrified public watching in alarm as he insists that of course M & S train men to be bra fitters for women and girls.

Pushing for safeguarding boundaries to be breached by these dodgy men is not accepted by the public - it's delusional to think it is.

Anyway, seems daft anyone would "rip them up". It's not like the person was named and I don't think the store was named either?

Unlikely that a customer would buy the paper, immediately read the story, somehow identify the person in it, and run up to shake the newspaper in their face.

Especially if they’re going to let men into changing rooms formally reserved for women, or in female departments.

The ones in the children's department at the Trafford centre do. But like I say the last one I went into (which was a huge store) didn't.

Boasting of his access to changing rooms where women are undressing! Defies belief.

No, it seems that this person, if genuine, has done more to get himself identified than anyone, he posted his whole name on the post originally then was advised to edit. Someone on the other thread saw it before it was changed and checked what appears to be real social media profiles, as did more than one person on the Reddit thread.

Q: How did you know this person was trans?! Women can be tall you know.
”Everyone at work knows I’m trans” because they have eyes so it’s fair to say shoppers will realise too.

I agree its a fail for a customer sadiafaction

But that is not "direct" sackable misconduct while dishonest acts are.

And if zero papers went through what did that do the automatic reorder levels?

I am assuming staff are not doing manual orders in the food hall but rather dispatch from supplier, store delivery and stock checks and POS reports to generate a reorder are all run by the supply chain system?

So that needed a trackable adjustment by staff?

The other manager buying (or not) the papers and ripping them them up in on? the sales floor in full view of staff and customers? Or ripping them up in a staff only space?

Not a professional act at all.

The alligation was about a failure in child safeguarding and that managers actions would be sending a message about how she/he would react if a similar incident occured with other staff.😬🙊

Costomers would not have a clue and just see a manager having a hissyfit?🙈

So the next thing is a possible insurance claim has been notified to M&S. If I am running security do I check the CCTV footage for that incident and only hold it or do I expect that the publicity may prompt other claims and check if I need to hand over all available footage to the Insurance company. So the hissyfit if it happened would be available for review.

Now with my security hat on I am seeing a whole lot of managers who are very friendly with "massive" amount of "blind" trust which blows a hole through any 2 person security controls. I would be asking HR how far each manager can be moved and break that team up.

Either way that story will impact other careers.

I also want to say that everyone who I work with knows I am transgender, because I do have a very deep voice and I am quite tall (5”11 not 6”2)

I got very upset because the customers complaint had systematically attacked every part of my being that I hate and cannot control, saying I had a ‘deep booming masculine voice’ and ‘extremely masculine facial features underneath my makeup’.

Why are customers supposed to pretend differently?

Why are customers supposed to put the staff members mental health concerns over and above their own? Its not our fucking problem.

It reminds me so much of people I have known with anorexia. Very controlling and furious with anyone who notices they are ill.

Obviously also furious with anyone who doesn't notice they are ill. Our duty in life is to be an admiring audience and also in the wrong. When did resilience go out of fashion?

The anorexia thing is probably why much of this seems familiar.

I remember a young woman I knew trying to be nice to a trans friend on FB by saying "my mum loved meeting you, she said you looked really feminine" and being reward with an enormous tantrum by the TIM because noticing how feminine they looked was invalidating. I suspect that not noticing would also have been invalidating.

(Spoilers: the TIM did not look remotely feminine)

It took me right back to people I used to know with anorexia. It didn't matter whether you noticed they were sick or pretended not to notice they were sick, the important thing was to put you in the wrong so they could vent.

What a coincidence that the male employee with a special interest in bras would be transporting such items across the store and ‘putting them away’.

Afaik, most retailers these days don’t necessarily put returns on the shop floor. The hangers/packaging might not be pristine, the item may not have been bought in that store etc. Many retailers have deals with stock disposal outlets rather than going to the effort of remerchandising stock. I don’t know exactly how M&S does it (maybe an employee could confirm?) but there are several very odd sounding parts of this chap’s story.

Not least the part where he says he approached the girl and her mother. The mother’s report was that she was out of sight and he didn’t initially realise she was there.

That's because its the same mental illness they're both types of body dismorphia and back in the days of watchful waiting they used to be treated together in group therapy along with other types of BD it really was an effective treatment.

Just a small lol I found on Twitter just now

Well the mere presence of Kate Forbes in the same building can make trans people feel "unsafe", and a book in a library can cause "serious harm".

These are most excellent ditties. 😁