Connie Parker was taken on as supervisor at Baldwin's Casuals when the factory went over to making curtains in January 1988. Connie had experience in curtain manufacturing and showed the girls the ropes, but she faced a difficult job as she was taking over Ivy Tilsley's position which Ivy wasn't told about until Connie started, and Mike had cut the girls' wages to pay for the changeover.
Connie was put in charge of getting Graham Farrell's rush job order finished and adopted a no-nonsense management style to get the girls working hard. She was proud of herself when they completed the order in three days, but she hadn't done herself any favours with the girls - when she told them to cut the chit-chat, Vera Duckworth told her to shut up and that she was sick of hearing her voice. Mike witnessed the scene and told Connie she was finished at the factory at the end of the week as she wasn't getting on with the staff. Connie realised that she was only there to get a difficult job done - contrary to what Mike had told her when he took her on. When her pleas that hers was the only wage coming into her house fell on deaf ears, Connie walked out of the factory and out of the job.