Dawn Painter was the North West divisional director of Charm Cosmetics. She had begun her career selling from door-to-door and had risen successfully through the ranks. Elsie Howard had worked for the company since September 1970, supervising a patch of saleswomen and in the following February Mrs Painter summoned her to her Manchester office for a chat. Chain smoking and speaking in something of a drawling supercilious tone, she told Elsie that she had been going through her returns for December and one woman, Mavis Sidlow, had not sold anything. Elsie replied that she had been to her house four times but was unable to get a reply. Mrs Painter ordered her to get on top of matters and find out what was wrong.