From your gloves to my mouth
Have you ever gotten out of a long morning of classes and help yourself to nice sandwich at the ’Sub Hub’ for lunch? But while standing in line, you watch the worker assemble someone else’s sandwich and when they go to ring up their order they take off one glove to swipe the customer’s card or shuffle their money, then the worker puts the glove back on and does it all over again? Do you think to yourself, “how gross?” and kindly step out of line? Well you should.
While standing in line at the ‘Sub Hub’ or ‘Fiesta Grill’, you may or may not have noticed that some of the employees do not change their gloves when they should. I have watched some employees change their gloves after a customer pays for their meal, and I have seen the opposite.
Employees that do change their gloves seem to be the ones that have worked for Polk Food Service longer or are more responsible. These people realize the germs they could be spreading to students and faculty members.
Other employees at these restaurants either do not care about the health risks involved with playing with food and money, or are too lazy to simply change their gloves.
By that point, I am wondering: what’s the point of them wearing gloves if they are not going to change them?
With the seasonal cold and flu, and the returning H1N1, PFS and their employees should make sure responsibility is in action and gloves are being changed. No one knows what germs money and student ID cards carry. Student ID cards go from our back pockets to the hands of the people in the cafeteria or restaurants. While money touches too many people’s hands before it reaches a sandwich artist at ’Sub Hub’.
At the end of last semester, when everyone was fighting hard to get rid of excess meals, I took my mom to the ‘Sub Hub’ for lunch. An employer had finished exchanging money with a student, and when she came to make our sandwiches, my mom politely asked her to change her gloves. She did so without a problem.
Honestly, we as customers should not have to ask workers to up their standards of health. It takes a quick second to put on a new pair of gloves, and I am pretty sure no one would mind if the line was held up because they were taking precautions. I would rather stand in line an extra minute than to catch the flu due to a lack of precautions.
I am not asking that they change gloves every time they make a new meal, just only when they have to make food and later touch a student ID card or money. And please, as students and faculty members, we cannot be afraid to take precautions ourselves. If you should ever be put in the middle of this situation ask them to change their gloves, and if they refuse, step out of line and take the issue up with a manager.
The fact that they do not do this sometimes on their own is nasty, dangerous and very annoying.
