M&S chief Stuart Machin has sparked debate about equal representation of women with comments he made on work-life balance.
Speaking at the Business Leader Summit in Westminster last week, Machin said: “I think in leadership, what I don’t like is leaders going away and being completely switched off. This audience might not agree … that’s how I would look at it.”
In comments reported by The Times, he added: “Work-life balance to me, I don’t like all of this talk about work-life balance. What I like is to talk about life and what’s important to you as a person. I’m going away this weekend to see a friend for their birthday, just for two-and-a-half days. I’ll keep in touch with work.”
Machin also acknowledged parting ways with his whole executive team since taking over. “To be honest all our top team have changed over my three years,” he said.
His remarks have prompted hundreds of comments on LinkedIn, with some calling them “toxic” and others arguing such expectations are simply the demands of business leadership, which come with executive-level responsibility and pay.
HR and transformation consultant Emma-Jayne Perez Chies said women were less likely to be able to meet an always-on expectation because they carry out proportionally more unpaid childcare.
“The risk of sex discrimination (specifically Indirect Discrimination under the Equality Act) stems from the disparate impact of an ‘always-on’ culture,” she said.
“While a ‘no switching off’ rule might be applied to everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. Women still provide the majority of unpaid care and childcare. By making constant availability a benchmark for leadership, you inherently penalise those with domestic responsibilities.”
Perez Chies told The Grocer: “If you have a boss that sees switching-off as a negative quality, that is going to put a lot of women off.”
Ricardo Quail, co-founder of executive career-coaching firm Optima Prep Lab, said: “I completely agree with Emma. While defenders often argue that ‘always-on’ availability is just a business necessity at the executive level, tribunal cases show that inflexible practices risk indirect sex discrimination.”
M&S marketing director Sharry Cramond also reacted, defending the leadership culture. “How does that work? If I am sitting in the car waiting to pick up one of my kids on a Saturday night, I am happy to check my emails,” she said.
“But if my boss calls me on a Tuesday afternoon and I am at a school concert, that’s OK too.
“Work/life integration genuinely works better for me than a binary separation,” Cramond added.
M&S product development director Kathryn Turner said: “As a working mum of three, I have always felt totally supported by Stuart Machin and [Food MD] Alex Freudmann as well as all the executive team.”
M&S had the biggest mean gender pay gap of the UK’s 11 largest grocers in 2024/25, at 12.2% versus an average of 9.1%. It also has the highest of the seven to so far report for 2025/26, at 10.8%. That compares with 7.7% at Tesco, 7.5% at Iceland, 6.9% at JLP, 6.6% at both Aldi and Sainsbury’s, and 6.5% at Asda. Others are due to report by 4 April.
M&S pointed out six of its 11 board members were female. The retailer came second after Diageo in FTSE Women Leaders’ latest ranking of companies for female representation on boards.
In M&S’s executive committee, two of nine members of are women.
“More broadly, from store director to retail operations director and product development to marketing director, women hold many of our most important leadership roles,” said an M&S spokesman. “That doesn’t happen by accident but because Stuart leads a culture where we invest in exciting and rewarding opportunities alongside flexible and supportive leadership.”
He said women also made up more than 50% of store managers.
He added: “Stuart was speaking to a meeting of CEOs and business leaders about his own executive leadership team. He was very clear that our leaders manage their job and their home life in a way that works for them, and he and the business support a flexible approach to getting the job done.”
The spokesman noted that M&S doubled full-paid maternity leave to 26 weeks in 2024.
The Grocer was also contacted by former M&S corporate affairs director Victoria McKenzie-Gould, now chief corporate affairs & sustainability officer at Magnum Ice Cream, after she was told of our enquiry by M&S’s press office.
She said that over seven years at M&S, with three stepchildren, “Stuart was always fully supportive of my jigsaw life and love of travel, and never once asked me where I was or disrespected holiday time”.
“As an exec member, of course you check in when you’re away – I don’t know any leader who doesn’t – but Stuart was always a brilliantly supportive boss who in my experience always cultivated diverse teams,” McKenzie-Gould added.
No comments yet