Racism, Discrimination, illegal contract from Marks & Spencer what are my options?

WestonDave

MDW wrote: »

I understand why most of you are saying that they cannot see any foul play in involved in terms of my skin colour, and no, there isn't any evidence i can use to say there was direct indication, racism was involved but it was one of those things where you could tell you just wouldn't of stand a chance. Even when i was led up to the waiting the room, the lady who i bought me up there was very funny with me, moody and gave me some really nasty looks.

Obviously, they weren't anything to me which i could deffiently say there were being racist about, but you don't have to say anything to be racist, there's other forms of doing so.

Anyway looking back, i think i was wrong to bring the race card into it, even though i believe this was a factor in me not getting role and like what someone else said, perhaps i could of handled the role play better or perhaps i didn't have what they were looking for, or someone else who applied for the same position was a lot better than me.

The funny thing is, i have been into that store many times, and i have never seen a black or Asian person working there.

I just really won't know as they didn't tell me the reason why.

Trouble is if you go looking for something or even thinking it might happen, you are more likely to see what you are looking for. The moody woman may just have been fed up at being the mug that had to keep ploughing up and down stairs with interview candidates instead of her nice normal job of standing behind a counter gossipping with her colleague instead of serving customers. That's not to say that she wasn't racist, but if being grumpy with a black person equals racism, then a lot of us have a problem!

saintjammyswine

MDW wrote: »

I agree with the points you have made, looking back now, i believe maybe i could of done something a little better and there's no point in taking this case any further, well i could but it would be a long process and i probably stand a 20 - 80 percent of anything happening in my favour.

Time to move on i guess.

But I bet you feel better in some small way knowing there is room for improvement, something you can work with to make sure at your next intervew that you are THE stand out candidate. We all have faults and weaknesses, the trick is to recognise them and work on eliminating them. Once you have done this it wont matter what colour, religion, sexual orientation or sex you are, they will simply need to employ you.

*Scarlett

I agree that you might not have done as well in the role play as you think.

A cake that took a week to make is obviously an expensive and possibly personalised item that won't be able to be resold. You could have offered other alternatives ie found out from the customer when it was required for and if it could be delivered in time, offered a different product that was immediately available, offered a discount, etc before just refunding their money. M&S may have concluded that your actions have lsot them money and left them with a dissatisfied customer.

This, paired with your abrupt departure from your last employment with them, might have sealed your fate.

When you initially applied for the role they may have had a policy that ex-employees who left (on good terms) did not have to complete the assesment but clearly when you ceased your previous employment it was not on the best of terms.

Also you don't seem to have a good opinion of M&S from your last employment so why would you want to work there again if they treated you so badly?

My advice would be to apply to other companies as there will be plenty of temporary / seasonal positions coming up. Even if they are not advertising at the minute, there's no harm enquiring to get your application in early and show you are keen.

By the way, good for you for looking for employment and not being content to rely on benefits. Good luck with your job hunting.

Emmzi

MDW wrote: »

Obviously, they weren't anything to me which i could deffiently say there were being racist about, but you don't have to say anything to be racist, there's other forms of doing so.

Anyway looking back, i think i was wrong to bring the race card into it, even though i believe this was a factor in me not getting role and like what someone else said, perhaps i could of handled the role play better or perhaps i didn't have what they were looking for, or someone else who applied for the same position was a lot better than me

You are right. They may be racist. They may not. You aren't going to know.

However, well done for coming around so quickly to focus on what you could have done differently - because what you do is the only thing you can change. If you want a career versus a job, somewhere that you have doubts, is not the place for you anyway.

But by constantly looking to how you can do better, you will develop.

DVardysShadow

Emmzi wrote: »

It is possible the former colleague who shouted at you did so because you were not very good at your job.

And/or because they were not very good at theirs [ie supervision] either.

Cyril

My take on it is that you didn't shine in the time you worked there so no-one was championing you and you also didn't do well in the role play exercise.

As a piece of advice from someone who used to recruit for a multi national bank, always take the emotion out of an interview. The reasons you didn't get the job are not personal they are a business decision. As an employer I don't care if you are blue i'm looking for the best candidate for the job.

White people get turned down for jobs all the time and no doubt other white candidates with you were turned down.

In my experience interviewers are more lenient with ethnic minorities to protect themselves from shouts of racism if a candidate doesn't get the job. ( which in turn is reverse racism )

You need to grow up a little.

bluenoseam

I see no evidence of racism in the story you have told us.

You were told as you'd worked for M&S prior you wouldn't need to do the whole "role play" thing, but afterwards what's happened is they've taken a look at your HR file which will clearly state "phoned up to say they weren't coming in again" - showing you're not professional.

You mentioned that a colleague "just didn't seem like they liked you" - newsflash, you're a christmas temp, not to shatter your illusions that we're universally liked, it's the opposite, generally we're there to pick up the jobs which the "regular" staff just don't like doing and in a lot of cases, we're just not liked very much because that's how some people cope with short term colleagues - zero attatchment to them whatsoever.

You took time off for fever & some back problems, now i can understand that lugging stock all day can be tough, but it's YOUR responsibility to ensure that safe lifting guidelines are followed, if you do it properly then simply put your back will not ache, you will feel the effort yes, but that's what people who work with manual handling jobs go through every day in life. I can't fault your fever, that's unavoidable, but ultimately again, your average worker, rightly or wrongly, goes to work when they're not feeling 100% - this shows (if they were as i suspect two seperate instances) that you're unreliable, two "sick" periods in 3 months, you know people are often let go for this right?

In your role play event you gave the worst example of what to do in retail, you sent a customer elsewhere with no alternative offered - that when you have 100 applicants for a job who will suggest an alternative product is professional suicide, refunds are generally seen as the very last course of action once all viable alternatives have been exhausted (oh no, the consumer rights people will just love that won't they!). The customer in your little scenario just walked out of M&S with her money, went to the local baker shop (or worse, supermarket) and spent that money in their till, got the cake they were after and loved it, why the hell would they bother with the waste of space who failed to deliver as promised and just offered a refund in the future? Ofcourse they won't, so that initial say £30 refund just cost M&S on average say about £500 a year, doesn't sound like much, but said customer has friends who'll avoid M&S again... Terrible answer on that front.

Some companies retain the right to refuse to elaborate on why you didn't get the job, they are under no legal obligation which i know to answer that question, many will do so based on the fact it allows personal development, M&S don't - although i would suggest your previous history of unprofessional conduct, reliability issues along with your dire answer to a fairly basic customer service question sealed the deal for you. If you want to go ahead and play the race card then feel free, but doing so will severely impact peoples perception of you as someone who looks to cause drama where there's no drama to be had - your answers (if you've given the gospel truth) and previous actions have more than written you off as a potential candidate. Further to this, at your age i'm guessing there's limited qualifications & extremely limited experience, in a country with over 2m unemployed people, many of them with degrees or 20+ years of experience do you think you're the best candidate right now? If you think yes, then i'm sorry but you're deluded!

Milkshock

most people here have stated that they hate the race card being played and while i am not black or ethnic minority, i do know that in tribunals playing the race card is very often an absolute winner and the best card you can play.

bluenoseam

Only in cases where theres PROOF that racial descrimination has taken place - playing the race card without that tangible proof is the quickest & easiest way to LOSE a tribunal case and suffer the negative effect associated with those who cry wolf.

Milkshock

bluenoseam wrote: »

Only in cases where theres PROOF that racial descrimination has taken place - playing the race card without that tangible proof is the quickest & easiest way to LOSE a tribunal case and suffer the negative effect associated with those who cry wolf.

proof?

do you mean where a manager has said i do not like you because you are black?

i can assure you tribunal cases have been won on far less conclusive evidence than that.