r/science • u/eastbayted • 2d ago

Health Sick food service workers remain top driver of viral foodborne outbreaks in US

https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20250331/sick-food-service-workers-remain-top-driver-of-viral-foodborne-outbreaks-in-us
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u/GHSTKD 2d ago

Every fast food restuarant I've worked at would demand you come in while sick unless you got a doctor's note, which is basically impossible for underpaid workers. I've seen people who couldn't stop puking handling ready-to-eat food. I've also never seen anyone wash produce AT ALL and gloves have made everything far worse because nobody washes their hands anymore. They also stay understaffed to save money.

Meanwhile at high end restaurants we were overstaffed, given free meals, and being genuinely sick wasn't a possible firing. Working at a fancy dinner place and I was paid well and happy to work. Working at fast food I was once fired because a snow storm knocked out the power, we were closed and I called DAILY to see if we were open (I worked evenings) after three days the ice and snow were good enough I could safely get into town and noticed they were open, went inside and was told I was fired for a no-call no-show and mentioned I had called every day around 9am, I was told "oh yeah the phone lines are down".

The manager didn't even attempt to call me when I didn't show up. At my sit-down restuarant job I was told to take all the time I needed to recover when I went to the hospital. There's such a disconnect.

Fast food is also disgusting. Mold everywhere, being told by managers to ignore the temp times because food waste hurt our bottom line, etc,. This was at KFC, Subway, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. I've heard it's almost every store from coworkers too.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

That sucks! I worked an Arby's when I was in school, that place was spotless, the manager spent most of the shift cleaning the back of the place, and we were meticulous about everything at close. All the produce was definitely washed as well (I did it a few times myself). Manager was also very good about sick leave. But it seems like that's not typical at all these days.

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u/chuiu 2d ago

But it seems like that's not typical at all these days.

A lot of it has to do with the quality of management. And with fast food paying less today than it did 10 or 20 years ago (in comparison to what's needed to live on) then you get fewer managers who care. And fewer employees as well. Coupled with understaffing and more demands on the individual worker, then the situation just keeps getting worse every year.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

Absolutely, they're trying to squeeze every penny of value from staff while paying them less every year (compared to the value of their work). Minimum wage should have been pegged to inflation or market-basket value decades ago. Average worker productivity has increased massively ahead of pay, and all that extra value ends up in the hands of the board. You can't tell me that the CEO of Google who gets paid $280M/yr is generating 3000 employees worth of value to the company!

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u/Hikaru1024 2d ago

Many, many years ago when I used to work at a McDonalds I remember being threatened with being fired if I didn't show up in a noreaster blizzard after the roads had been ordered closed. He was complaining that he was the only one in the building.

A few minutes later I'm told he was abruptly ordered to shut down by the police. Even if I'd been insane enough to try to get there in blinding conditions and dodging police the whole way, by the time I had I would have been trying to get into an empty building.

He did not bother to call me, nor anyone else he'd threatened back.

I've remembered that for the rest of my life.

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u/64557175 2d ago

I worked at a local mom and pop cafe restaurant and for at least 2 months I was the only person trained on making any food items. I couldn't even take a lunch break nonetheless a day off!