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During a few days away in Liverpool, I happened to catch the area’s regional BBC News programme – North West Tonight (I know how to have a good time).
And I was instantly drawn into the top story about an autistic man who voluntarily stacked shelves at a Waitrose store.
Tom Boyd started work experience at the Cheadle Hulme store in 2021 and continued to work unpaid.
Since then, he has amassed a staggering 600 hours of unpaid work.
But when his mum, Frances, asked if he could be offered "just a few paid hours", the supermarket reportedly told him he had to stop and could not return to work.
It’s a moving story and one that did not sound good for Waitrose.
And a quick Google revealed it had become a PR nightmare.
Here’s a taste of some of the damning headlines I found:
Painful stuff.
In a week where AWS led the way with bad publicity thanks to a global IT meltdown, this story was arguably not far behind.
And it has a strong human element.
As we always stress during our media training courses, people love stories about other people.
There was also a strong social media response to the story, led by Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester.
He called the Waitrose treatment of Tom “truly terrible” in an X post that received 1.5 million views.
And he vowed to support him to “find another placement that works”.
The story also sparked conversation about disability rights and workplace inclusion.
While Waitrose endured a torrid time in the spotlight, one of its rivals seized on its misfortune.
Asda offered Tom two five-hour paid shifts a week.
A spokesperson said: “When we heard about Tom and his desire to find meaningful work, we knew he’d be a fantastic fit and we are delighted to offer him a role at his local store.”
A new worker for Asda and some great media coverage without a big fanfare or media announcement – the job offer was revealed by Tom’s mum.
But that was not the end of the story.
It subsequently emerged that Waitrose was now prepared to reverse its decision and offer Tom paid work.
A spokesman for Waitrose said: "We'd like to welcome Tom back, in paid employment, and are seeking support from his family and the charity to do so.
"We hope to see him back with us very soon.
"We care deeply about helping people into the workplace who might otherwise not be given a chance.
"As such, we warmly welcomed Tom and his support worker into our Cheadle Hulme branch to gain experience and build his confidence.
"We have policies in place to support volunteering, and are investigating what's happened in Tom's situation."
Tom’s mum has said the family is “thinking about” the Waitrose offer. And it is great that her son had effectively gone from being axed to headhunted.
But from a crisis media management and reputation perspective, it feels too little, too late.
The job offer has come after an avoidable media frenzy, where one of its rivals emerged looking much more caring.
For me, there are a couple of clear crisis communication lessons in this story.
Firstly, Waitrose is a massive brand with stores throughout the country. But it is the actions in just one of its many stores that hit its reputation and raised questions about whether its values and culture are little more than corporate buzzwords.
Reputation, no matter how big the organisation, is fragile. Trust is easily broken.
And that leads on to how this crisis was initially handled, because a better response could have reduced the damage.
Waitrose’s original response was not great.
It said: “We work hard to be an inclusive employer.
“As part of this we partner with a number of charities, including to provide work experience, and are well experienced in making reasonable adjustments to help people succeed at work.
"We are sorry to hear of Tom's story and whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, we are investigating as a priority."
It feels cold, defensive, and detached. And weirdly, given the circumstance, a bit self-praising,
It is responding to a story about Tom, but he isn’t mentioned until the last line.
There’s a Theodore Roosevelt quote we often highlight during our crisis communication training courses.
He once said: “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
All these years later, those words remain pertinent. Even more so when dealing with such an emotive, human story.
It’s why our CARE framework for crisis responses (Compassion, Action, Reassurance and Examples) begins with Compassion.
Waitrose could have started by saying: “We are devastated to hear about Tom and are urgently investigating exactly what has happened.”
Once it gained the necessary information, it should then have provided a speedy update to show what it was doing to make the situation right and gain control of the narrative.
Asda gave this story a happy ending,
As for Waitrose, while its website talks about “food to feel good about”, recent headlines and social media posts have left more than a bitter taste.
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