Autistic lad rejected by supermarket gets job offer

[butchstewie]

Not sure if naming and shaming applies to the thread title but if anyone has seen this what an absolute mess Waitrose have got themselves into.

Waitrose-rejected autistic worker gets Asda offer

You could probably pay this lad for ten years on the cost of the reputational hit they'll take being front page news for looking like heartless sts.

[Wills2]

I'm flabbergasted, they had a an autistic man working in their store for free? Are there not laws around his stuff that's outrageous then when he asks if they would pay him they turf him out? If he's good enough to be in the store for 4 years working he's good enough to have been paid.

"Waitrose never knowingly caring"

[dundarach]

No idea of the back story, but sounds to me something along the lines of:

Mum: Hello Dave, any chance you could let my lad pop in and stack some shelves, he's no bother.
Dave: Sure no bother, tell him to come Monday (circa 2021) and I'll look after him

Time passes

Autumn 2022

All: Happy retirement Dave, thanks for all your service.

Time passes

Autumn 2025

Brian (the new regional supervisor): Who's that lad stacking selves?
All: Dunno, thought you employed him...I didn't, thought you did, well he's nowt to do with me...
Brian: oh st!

[CT05 Nose Cone]

600 hours unpaid labour for Waitrose, you'd think with the amount they charge for food they could afford to give him something in return.

[s1962a]

From what I read, Waitrose were doing the lad a favour and then carried on letting him come in.

[Hoofy]

FOUR YEARS!? Volunteering... for a business... that profits!?

Well, would any professionally qualified accountants like to volunteer for my business. My annual return is due. I'll provide a free biscuit (singular).

dundarach said:

No idea of the back story, but sounds to me something along the lines of:

Mum: Hello Dave, any chance you could let my lad pop in and stack some shelves, he's no bother.
Dave: Sure no bother, tell him to come Monday (circa 2021) and I'll look after him

Time passes

Autumn 2022

All: Happy retirement Dave, thanks for all your service.

Time passes

Autumn 2025

Brian (the new regional supervisor): Who's that lad stacking selves?
All: Dunno, thought you employed him...I didn't, thought you did, well he's nowt to do with me...
Brian: oh st!

[s1962a]

Hoofy said:

Well, would any professionally qualified accountants like to volunteer for my business. My annual return is due. I'll provide a free biscuit (singular). hehe

A more accurate analogy would be you allow an autistic person with their carer to come and do bits and bobs in your office. How many of us have done that?

[Slow.Patrol]

s1962a said:

From what I read, Waitrose were doing the lad a favour and then carried on letting him come in.

This is also my understanding after reading a bit deeper.

Still, I suppose if he is working, then his disability benefits will be adjusted accordingly.

That'll be another drum for his Mum to bang.

[Derek Smith]

My force employed disabled people in the CCTV monitoring centre. One of the guys was imaginative, thoughtful and worked hard to improve his and the unit's performance. I got him an interview for another, better paid, role where he was just what the unit inspector was looking for. He turned it down through loyalty. He said he had had interviews for (I forget the appalling number) but that panels didn't look beyond his disability. When he entered the room for the interview for the CCTV job, he said that he realised instantly that the panel, which didn't include me, ignored his disability and for the first time, they wanted to know what he could do. He said that even if he hadn't got the job, he's have been both grateful and happy.

What the healthy people don't realise, eh?

The way we treat the disabled in heartless. Equality includes disability, but doesn't. Panels exclude those who make minor additional demands. That 10-minute chat has stuck with me for decades.

[JagLover]

I am reminded of the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished".

The supermarket offers volunteering opportunities for the disabled, no doubt to boost social confidence etc. The work carried out probably usually isn't sufficient for their standard hourly rate, then they get hammered in the media when something like this happens.

A lose lose situation, unless they never went down that road in the first place.

Incidentally where I work also offers work placement opportunities for the disabled (I think usually physically disabled) and for similar reasons. To build social confidence and work skills. We are a large charity, but if a volunteer wanted a paid position they would, as far as I am aware, have to meet the same standards as any other applicant. Such a work volunteer placement is intended to benefit both parties.

Edited by JagLover on Thursday 23 October 17:07

[21TonyK]

One complication when offering work experience to people with special needs is the requirement for a support worker if there is no-one who can support within the employers workforce.

It may have been the case that making it paid employment the responsibility falls on the supermarket to provide that support.

I have taught and employed people with special needs and it not easy to do. I would assume a company the size of Waitrose have a programme of their own to manage this and the situation has arisen from a lack of communication on their part. Either way, its not reflecting well on them.

[Gareth79]

dundarach said:

No idea of the back story, but sounds to me something along the lines of:

Mum: Hello Dave, any chance you could let my lad pop in and stack some shelves, he's no bother.
Dave: Sure no bother, tell him to come Monday (circa 2021) and I'll look after him

Time passes

Autumn 2022

All: Happy retirement Dave, thanks for all your service.

Time passes

Autumn 2025

Brian (the new regional supervisor): Who's that lad stacking selves?
All: Dunno, thought you employed him...I didn't, thought you did, well he's nowt to do with me...
Brian: oh st!

From what I read it was brought to attention when his mother asked if he could have a small number of paid shifts to reflect his dedication. Presumably at that point the store management realised he'd have to go through all the induction processes and asked for advice, at which time they said "he's been working there for years and we knew nothing about it!?"

21TonyK said:

One complication when offering work experience to people with special needs is the requirement for a support worker if there is no-one who can support within the employers workforce.

It may have been the case that making it paid employment the responsibility falls on the supermarket to provide that support.

If he's got a dedicated state-supported support worker who knows him very well then I doubt it would be in the person's interests to replace them with somebody else. Possibly they might need some employer-relevant training, but probably the standard H&S induction processes is enough since the job isn't particularly specialist.

Edited by Gareth79 on Thursday 23 October 17:48

[CountyLines]

Slow.Patrol said:

That'll be another drum for his Mum to bang.

[Hoofy]

s1962a said:

Hoofy said:

Well, would any professionally qualified accountants like to volunteer for my business. My annual return is due. I'll provide a free biscuit (singular). hehe

A more accurate analogy would be you allow an autistic person with their carer to come and do bits and bobs in your office. How many of us have done that?

Fair point.

[21TonyK]

Gareth79 said:

If he's got a dedicated state-supported support worker who knows him very well then I doubt it would be in the person's interests to replace them with somebody else. Possibly they might need some employer-relevant training, but probably the standard H&S induction processes is enough since the job isn't particularly specialist.

My experience of the situation is that it can be quite complicated. Like you say, his support worker is already doing their job as a support worker. They cant then go and work for Waitrose a few hours a week.

Last company I worked for said they encouraged people with additional needs to work "with" them but the reality was somewhat different.

It was only because I pushed for it and said I had 10 years of experience teaching SEN kids and young adults in the workplace they would entertain the idea of paid employment for a lad with special needs. 3 months in his support worker disappeared which wasnt an issue until I left the company.

[BikeBikeBIke]

JagLover said:

I am reminded of the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished".

This.

An organisation I'm involved in gave a local special school the chance for some work experience. A newcomer to the management made the point that if a student got injured in some way on our site it could reflect very badly on us. It was impossible to fault that logic so the opportunity wa withdrawn.

This incident makes me realize she was right, and there are plenty of other ways it could have blown up in our faces that we hadn't considered.

Edited by BikeBikeBIke on Thursday 23 October 18:22

[ChocolateFrog]

Brilliant PR win for Asda and I bet they get a great employee into the bargain.

[ChocolateFrog]

Slow.Patrol said:

s1962a said:

From what I read, Waitrose were doing the lad a favour and then carried on letting him come in.

This is also my understanding after reading a bit deeper.

Still, I suppose if he is working, then his disability benefits will be adjusted accordingly.

That'll be another drum for his Mum to bang.

But reading between the lines he was actually quite a good worker and was able to do certain tasks to the level required.

An absolute piss take that they allowed it to continue as long as it did.

[Sheepshanks]

Slow.Patrol said:

s1962a said:

From what I read, Waitrose were doing the lad a favour and then carried on letting him come in.

This is also my understanding after reading a bit deeper.

Still, I suppose if he is working, then his disability benefits will be adjusted accordingly.

That'll be another drum for his Mum to bang.

Been a big thing on our local news - it feels like there's more to this than is being reported.

He's done 600 hours - but that's over 4yrs, and sounds like he's being taken in by his support worker now and again.

It probably seemed a bit complicated to Waitrose to make him an employee but with all the publicity I guess they'll do whatever it takes now.

[BikeBikeBIke]

ChocolateFrog said:

But reading between the lines he was actually quite a good worker and was able to do certain tasks to the level required.

Nothing says "good worker" like doing 3 hours a week and being totally unable to find paid employment.

Waitrose are a pretty public spirited company owned by their staff. There's little doubt in my mind that they.gave this lad the opportunity of a couple of hours work experience a week as a favour to him, not out of some pantomime villain cunning plan to increase turnover through 3 hours a week of highly effective free employee's labour.