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Macy's employee fired for refusing to follow company policy


Annette

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Call me crazy, but I can see a bunch of older teenage or early 20 something boys using this as an excuse to cause some major shit.. I can just see this happening in a local department store where a bunch of football guys, or maybe frats hazing pledges, make a kid or select one of their bunch to dress up like a girl so they can capture the head cheerleaders bra or some equal moronic behavior. Macy's needs to desegegrate and make sure that all dressing cubicle's are very private, and lock,to please everyone and prevent stupidity.

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I've never been in a dressing cube that doesn't lock, unless its in a "fancier" kind of store, with full-length curtain. I suppose they could switch out the doors to be higher and go lower. I would like that in any dressing room, desegregated or not, actually.

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Ugghh, I hate the tone in the article. So hateful towards transgender people.

Yeah. The utter transphobia of the article makes me sick.

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I can just imagine how far this will go: imagining a saleswoman telling you she won't sell you a tube top or Daisy Dukes because they are "immodest" and selling them will be discriminatory towards her religion? Or a grocery store clerk refusing to ring up your bacon, because they are kosher? Or a makeup counter rep refusing to sell you lipstick because it will make you a "painted face Jezebel"?

I used to live in an area with a large Muslim population, and a couple things like this happened while I was there--people refusing to ring up non-halal foods and alcohol. The bigger problem was taxi drivers refusing to drive drunk people or people with alcohol on them, since a majority of taxi drivers in the area were Muslim and they presented a united front. Silliness.

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I used to live in an area with a large Muslim population, and a couple things like this happened while I was there--people refusing to ring up non-halal foods and alcohol. The bigger problem was taxi drivers refusing to drive drunk people or people with alcohol on them, since a majority of taxi drivers in the area were Muslim and they presented a united front. Silliness.

:shock: Well, there goes all their business. How can taxi drivers refuse to drive people who have been drinking? That's like 90% of the people who take taxis! (This may be a bit exaggerated based on the area, but still.)

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As a lifetime chicagoan, Macys has been a thorn in my side since they bought out Marshall Fields.

Until now. I'm going to make a POINT to shop there now.

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I'm having a hard time on this one. Its not the legitimate trans person that wants to try on women's clothing in the dressing room... its the pervert that I'm afraid of. I do frequent Macys because its the only place I can find suits in my size - TJMAXX never has good petite sizes. When I'm in the dressing room I'm generally the only person for the entire time and its fairly secluded, not to mention there are no cameras... I just dont know where to draw the line. If I were a pervert that was looking for a nice place to rape someone, a secluded dressing room is a great place (and I'm not calling a true trans a pervert I just see the world through crime goggles)... I just feel better knowing that someone is making sure that women are in the women's dressing room. I honestly may not go back knowing that all it takes is for some tool to put on a dress and slip a knife in his purse.

As for firing her... I'm ok with that. She gave a BS response to the problem instead of seeking out a supervisor.

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I'm having a hard time on this one. Its not the legitimate trans person that wants to try on women's clothing in the dressing room... its the pervert that I'm afraid of. I do frequent Macys because its the only place I can find suits in my size - TJMAXX never has good petite sizes. When I'm in the dressing room I'm generally the only person for the entire time and its fairly secluded, not to mention there are no cameras... I just dont know where to draw the line. If I were a pervert that was looking for a nice place to rape someone, a secluded dressing room is a great place (and I'm not calling a true trans a pervert I just see the world through crime goggles)... I just feel better knowing that someone is making sure that women are in the women's dressing room. I honestly may not go back knowing that all it takes is for some tool to put on a dress and slip a knife in his purse.

As for firing her... I'm ok with that. She gave a BS response to the problem instead of seeking out a supervisor.

I would think that if someone were to attempt to do that, they'd wait until the dressing rooms were unsupervised and lie in wait, regardless of whether they were male or female dressing rooms?

I have a friend who in college would NEVER try ANY clothes on in any dressing room saying "you never know who could be watching, employees, hidden cameras, its safer to buy the stuff, try it on at home and return it"

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I would think that if someone were to attempt to do that, they'd wait until the dressing rooms were unsupervised and lie in wait, regardless of whether they were male or female dressing rooms?

I have a friend who in college would NEVER try ANY clothes on in any dressing room saying "you never know who could be watching, employees, hidden cameras, its safer to buy the stuff, try it on at home and return it"

They are mostly unsupervised. There is a woman roving the racks every now and then but there is NO ONE at the door. I very rarely try stuff on in the store unless I need the suit for court the next day, but it does happen. My credit card is a mess with all the returns!

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How exactly were the clerk's religious rights violated?

The clerk wasn't being asked to march in a Pride Parade, or to change in the changeroom herself.

Her views on homosexuality or cross-dressing are irrelevant. SHE is not being asked to sleep with someone of the same sex or cross-dress, nor is she being asked for her opinion on those things. Freedom of religious doesn't = freedom to subject your customers to your preaching while working for your employer.

THIS!!

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I have worked for Macy's and they are not at all a controlling employer for the most part. We had an entire employee meeting about how we are allowed to use the holiday greeting of our choice, or none at all. But they are firm on GLBTQ rights and this bitch deserved to be fired.

I worked for a major entertainment company- and even though they WERE very controlling of their employees. (they are known for it) They also are one of the most GLBT companies around. I think with all the control that they kept, they were able to scare employees like this idiot from even attempting to work at the company.

Yeah, I had more than one person tell me that I'd go to hell for working for that particular company.

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If I were a pervert that was looking for a nice place to rape someone, a secluded dressing room is a great place (and I'm not calling a true trans a pervert I just see the world through crime goggles)... I just feel better knowing that someone is making sure that women are in the women's dressing room.
When I was a teenager, I used an unattended dressing room in a department store--only to have some middle-aged guy come in while I was trying on clothes, opening the doors on each stall and peeking inside each one. My door was locked, and it was obvious I was in there, but he tried the handle anyway. I asked him what he was doing, and he claimed he was looking for his wife, but even my naive teenaged self could tell he was lying.

I'm more likely to confront a creeper, make a lot of noise, and draw a lot of attention--that's just how I'm wired. And that case was no different. I loudly told him to get his sicko perv self the F out of the ladies' dressing room (as I pulled my street clothes back on). As soon as the coast was clear, I left the dressing room, found a clerk, and told her what had happened.

So while I don't wear crime-goggles, and don't give much thought to danger until it's actually present, I still prefer to use dressing rooms that have an attendant on duty, and think twice about using ones that don't. I don't care if they're unisex; I just want to know the staff are keeping an eye on things.

But I figure the only reason places like Macy's have gender-segregated dressing rooms is because the men's and women's departments are completely separate from each other, so it just works out that way. If you're trying on men's clothes, you use the dressing room in the men's department, no matter what your sex or gender is. Ditto, women's clothing. These days, that separation isn't about notions of propriety anymore--not when you've got Old Navy, the Gap, and similar stores with unisex dressing rooms, and nobody thinking anything of it.

That said, I do think the girl deserved to get canned. Sure, she has her religious beliefs, but she agreed to work for a company with explicitly GLBT-friendly policies. If those policies offend her so much that she can't abide by them in good conscience, then she needs to go work somewhere that is more closely aligned with her values. And now, after trying to force her personal beliefs as company policy, she'll get a chance to--like it or not.

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As a former Macys employee I have some inside knowledge. First of all, there are no cameras INSIDE the dressing rooms. Macys has one back room for security which has a huge panel of video cameras which monitor the sales floors/escalators/exits/entrances. So if you're inside a fitting room stall, no one is able to watch you. Security may stand outside the fitting room to monitor people coming in and out if they suspect someone shoplifting, but usually they just monitor the entrance to the fitting room. Security blends in quite well because they're dressed like you or I, and they carry shopping bags around to make it appear as if they're a customer. Secondly, employees are required to sign off on the fitting room every 15 minutes, IIRC to ensure that it is clean and to check for shoplifting.

As for the transgender customers, we used to get them all the time at Macys. Management never addressed this issue with employees. We were never told how to handle this, so I'm surprised that management at this particular Macys took the time to address this with their employees. Our meetings with management consisted of "Push our credit program or else...!" Macys doesn't really care about anything other than opening more credit applications and sales.

At Victoria's Secret, men are allowed in the fitting room, but the employee must notify the other female shoppers in the fitting room area , that a male is entering the fitting room.

Wow, the Macys you worked sounds completely different. I really hated working there and I hated the way they treated their employees. IMO, they really are no better than Wal-Mart. The quality of their clothes are cheap. They don't want to pay their staff accordingly (they once tried to offer one of my co-workers 'MacyBucks' instead of actually putting money in her paycheck). Macys is tolerant to its staff, until you start scanning the same coupons for multiple customers or if you fail to open X amount of credit applications for the month. Then you get fired.

ETA: I also wanted to add something. Just some friendly advice from your neighborhood germaphobe. Never, ever stand barefoot in a fitting room. Why? Because people change their kid's diapers on the floor and leave the dirty diapers there. Or, people will piss on the fitting room floor. Or piss on some clothes and leave it on the floor. The Junior's department in our Macys was so bad, that they had to remove the carpeting and put in tile flooring instead.

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ETA: I also wanted to add something. Just some friendly advice from your neighborhood germaphobe. Never, ever stand barefoot in a fitting room. Why? Because people change their kid's diapers on the floor and leave the dirty diapers there. Or, people will piss on the fitting room floor. Or piss on some clothes and leave it on the floor. The Junior's department in our Macys was so bad, that they had to remove the carpeting and put in tile flooring instead.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Do they not have baby change rooms nearby? Or is it a case where the kid's screaming and the mother wants to take care of business as fast as possible?

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If a perv wants to molest someone in a dressing room, they will find a way to do it if the room isn't properly attended. Gender segregation won't have anything to do with it.

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The legal professional in me is impressed by how they spun this situation. This is the sort of example you want to give to law students on framing an issue in a way that is favorable for their client. The human being in me, OTOH, wants to hit them with large sticks,

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Agreed that people can be disgusting in stores. We once had somebody lay their baby in a pile of plush animals and change it's very poopy diaper. And they left the diaper behind. We were throwing out damaged plush for weeks as we found yet another with poop on it. We couldn't even donate them due to the type of damage.

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Agreed that people can be disgusting in stores. We once had somebody lay their baby in a pile of plush animals and change it's very poopy diaper. And they left the diaper behind. We were throwing out damaged plush for weeks as we found yet another with poop on it. We couldn't even donate them due to the type of damage.

DId they completely lack the sense and vocabulary to ask "where is the bathroom?". That is quite possibly the most DISGUSTING thing i've heard of in a LONG time.

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I worked in the lingerie dept once and caught a couple in the fitting room. Evidently, they wanted to try before they bought. :o

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DId they completely lack the sense and vocabulary to ask "where is the bathroom?". That is quite possibly the most DISGUSTING thing i've heard of in a LONG time.

I wasn't working at the time it happened, but the store was too small to have a public bathroom. And even though all of the stores I worked had mall restrooms nearby, the fact that we didn't have a public restroom would piss of several people a day. I think this case was pure laziness and lack of thought for anybody but themselves. (I always wondered at the parents who would take time to argue with us that we had to have a restroom that they could use, while their speshul snowflayke danced around about to explode.)

Working in retail, you end up meeting the best and the worst of the public. I once got chewed out by a dad for asking his daughters to stop throwing things and pulling every display apart a few minutes before closing. This was the same sort that didn't understand that if they create more hours of work for the employees, the cost of the products goes up too.

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