If you’re in food service, you know it’s a little bit like the doctor’s. Your hours are unpredictable. You don’t want to skip work because you know your coworkers will have to pick up your slack. And your work is judged on quantity AND quality.
So it’s no surprise that like many doctors, food service workers often go into work sick unless they’re dead men walking,
A new report from the Center for Research and Public Policy said that almost 51 percent of food workers—which includes farmers, commercial bakers, waitstaff, and others,--said that they “always” or “frequently” come into work sick.
And who can blame them? The reasons are pretty incriminating of the food service industry. 47 percent of the workers said that the main reason they refuse to stay home when sick is because they don’t want to let their coworkers down.
The other main reason? Because they don’t want to lose pay.
Many cities, starting with San Francisco and extending to many major cities and states, have passed sick leave laws for food service workers. Many companies, like Chipotle, now have sick leave benefits.
These changes are helpful, as they could mean less of the reasons that food service workers come sick to work. After all, the situation is so dire that all of the people who come into work while sick do so “despite the risk they pose to fellow workers and to the food they handle.”
And it’s a real public health issue—during the 2009 outbreak of swine flu, up to 1,500 deaths could have been prevented by employees of all kinds staying home.
Hopefully we can make that kind of pressure to come to work unnecessary. Until then, wash your hands and do you best to keep your own food clean.
