Holiday Coworker Hell At the Magic Kingdom: Food Server Forgets Gloves

So, I had the stupidest thing happen to me today.

I was back out at the location from last time, because I love it out there. I've been having a good morning when the time comes for me to call for product. Our runner is a guy I'll call K. K is a college kid, doing the internship program and he's... well, okay as a person, but he can be EXTREMELY annoying at times.

I don't particularly care for him, but I don't hate his guts. As he comes out with his order, I see him start to unload out of the corner of my eye and go back to taking orders. After a while, when he's almost done, I glance at him again to tell him something when I notice a VERY important detail: the hand that's holding food has NO GLOVE ON IT.

I look and notice the other one doesn't either. After blurting out "Are you crazy?" I asked him, a bit more calmly, if he had handled all the food that way. He had. I told him, very bluntly, that he had to take ALL THE PRODUCT HE HAD TOUCHED and spoiled it.

It was a brand new order, fresh out of the oven, and it all had to be thrown out. This is the same kid that, during training, called himself "the king of fast food" because he had worked at the Arches before. I wasn't impressed then (my last location is LITERALLY the busiest restaurant in the U.S.), and I'm not impressed now. He tried to use the excuse that "he had never done this before" and therefore didn't know what to do. First off, I found out that THE DAY BEFORE he had been assigned to do pretty much the EXACT SAME JOB IN TOMORROWLAND, AND HE HADN'T FORGOTTEN THE FUCKING GLOVES THEN.

Second off, if you've worked in fast food/with food before, you should KNOW not to handle ready to eat food with your BARE HANDS. Even if you had just washed him, you've been pushing the not perfectly clean food cart before you got here. Lastly, I asked Mrs. MM (who, by the way, has never worked with food), and she said it was fucking stupid. So, because of that, I called our cooker and got a new order going, also eventually having to talk to our supervisor and explain that it wasn't the cooker's fault.

That wasn't the worst part though. I wound up running out of ALL of my food, though part of that was due to being hit out of nowhere by a decently large group that all wanted the same thing. As I was explaining to guests, I saw the door open. My new manager stepped out, who's a pretty cool guy, so I wasn't too worried because I could tell him what had happened. However, after that, his manager stepped out, our area leader.

She's a nice lady, and again I wasn't worried because I was on good terms with her and could explain everything.

...

Then HER manager stepped out, and I started to get a little worried. This gentleman was one step below running ALL food and beverage for Magic Kingdom. Thankfully, he didn't head out my way. New Manager eventually did and I told him what had happened. I dunno what happened after that, but K apologized to me at least three times over the course of the day. I'm not going to lie, I head-registered a couple of times when no one was looking.

Thankfully I have the next two days off. I'm going to south florida to visit my mom and grandparents and such. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and get to spend at least SOME of christmas with your loved ones.

Have a magical christmas!

--Mouse Mastered

 

Comments

[BKExcuse]

You seemed to be pretty freaked that he used his hands to handle foods but Florida has no law mandating gloves to be used when handling RTE food. Many restaurants don't require it either.

[MouseMastered]

There isn't a law, but it's disney policy that we wear gloves WHENEVER we handle RTE food. Furthermore, he's been here a while and KNOWS this. That's what I'm more upset about. If he can't remember something he's been doing for months, how on earth does he get by at his normal job?

[Token Female]

Even if there isn't a law mandating the wearing of gloves with RTE food, I'm sure the vast majority of customers would really appreciate it if the people handling their food wore gloves when handling it. I'm not really a germaphobe, but I'd feel a lot better if my food was handled with gloves - I don't know where your hands have been on your break or what you've touched since the last time you washed them...

[Kay]

Yeah, I stopped eating at a certain fast food hamburger chain after seeing *one* employee in a store in the middle of nowhere handling food without gloves. I like the illusion of cleanliness at the least.

[Bob]

So this guy is going to touch this food trolley with his gloves on, then touch the food? Cross contamination.

This guy is going to touch his face with his gloves on, and then touch the food? Cross contamination.

This guy touches the gloves in the box with dirty hands? All the gloves are now contaminated.

Good hand hygiene is essential in any food work and gloves are no substitute for it - the big chefs of the world (and indeed, many smaller ones), do not wear gloves when preparing food

[Die Die My Darling]

Just a note - though I'll agree that if your regulations say he's supposed to, and he's done it before, etc, he's completely wrong and an idiot - but the Arches I work at don't require the grill folks to wear gloves because 'they get as dirty, as quickly, and if anything cause more germs to accumulate in an area'. So... you know, just saying.

[MissForgetable]

Eww eww. I went to the local creepy king fast food place the other day, and it took 20 minutes to get my food. So while I was standing there, something was bothering me. I finally figured it out; the 2 guys preparing the food were not wearing gloves.
I'm sorry but that grosses me out. I don't know what they've touched or what's under their fingernails. =/ Bleh.

[Debya]

Hats off to wohveer wrote this up and posted it.