Dying cashier coughing vigorously into her hands as my veg propels towards said hands

[user1471722692]

Right, WIBU? At the supermarket earlier a girl at the till was clearly ill and kept coughing wildly into her hands. My full lot of shopping was inching towards her and I told her that I was a bit concerned about her handling my food, including salad stuff. I tried to be tactful! They got a different cashier and I apologised profusely but felt like a massive dick. WIBU??????

Dying?

But I'd imagine the whole cashier station was contaminated so it was already too late. I do wash all my food so no, I wouldn't have said anything but I don't think YWBU either.

Not U as such. But how clean do you think the average cashier's hands are? They touch item after item that's been touched by customers and other staff and manufacturers. They handle money. You should really wash anything that doesn't come clean and in packaging.

No, YANBU.

Our ASDA checkout staff gel their hands before continuing if they cough/sneeze/need to blow nose.

I thought it was normal in all supermarkets these days.

Well... A little. It's not nice to be served by someone who is ill and spluttering, but presumably you wash your vegetables before you eat them anyway. And if you think about all the steps involved in picking and transporting and packaging the vegetables before they even reach the supermarket shelves, and the potential for them to be contaminated during all of those steps, some germs from someone coughing is the least of your worries.

And think of all the people handling the vegetables before you.

Right, just NC'd (new account, long story with the old one). She wasn't dying (I don't think), just meant she was visibly ill. I wash everything anyway and I don't suppose the whole place is surgically clean to begin with, but she was clearly properly ill and coughing a painful hacking cough into her hands which were then poised to start scanning my stuff... which would then go in my car, on my worktops, my hands, etc, etc, before I washed things. Tins, packaged stuff etc. would just go in fridge and cupboards as is. I don't really think I WBU, but it definitely didn't feel like the done thing to say anything.

I'm pretty usually cavalier with that sort of thing - It's good for your immune system! - etc. But it just grossed me out too much

Was at a supermarket last week, checkout woman had these long red nails, shiny and sooo long. WIth which she proceeded to repeatedly pick her teeth molars right at the back of her mouth as well. Thankfully her cashtill wouldn't work so we had to move to another. Was her first day too, you'd have thought she'd have been told the basics, how to scan, not to pick your teeth then handle customers food....

Bit mean to moan about her coughing if she was dying.

Not U. I've worked in customer service and I don't think many customers are happy to be served by someone clearly I'll.

Yanbu and were right to say something.

My 'thing' is sneezing. I just can't bear to see people sneezing all over their hands and then not washing them. For goodness sake people, sneeze into your elbow!

What if I told you there's a pretty high chance that your tins and packets of food have been contaminated with rat/mouse urine at some point? Someone coughing is the least of your problems. But then if you worry about this sort of stuff you'd never eat anything. (I work in a café though, and get really hacked off at people coughing without covering their mouths! So many people do it and it's disgusting! I cough and sneeze into my sleeve, as it both contains it and means I don't have to wash my hands, which are in and out of D10 solution all the time anyway.)

Also, the reason she may be working when she's clearly ill, is because if it's anything like the company I work for you only get a certain amount of times you can be off sick in a year. I've also known managers and team leaders refuse to send people home when they're really ill and it really is a food safety issue. This example was from Monday. My team leader tried to claim my colleague only had to stay off work for 24 hours after the last symptoms of gastroenteritis, well it's 48, it's says so in our colleague sickness handbook! My colleague sensibly stayed at home. There's a really crappy attitude about this sort of thing and it really makes me angry. All it takes is someone coming in to work when they're ill, and someone with a weak immune system catches it, and they could die. I'm sure that would go down well with the general public. (Sorry, that was a bit of a rant.)

@Saphire no, I totally agree with you!! This girl was clearly properly ill and I couldn't believe that no-one had told her to go home and get better. I work for myself and caught a bad cold from a friend recently, and it was disastrous for me. Working as a cashier and personally handling every item of grocery shopping, I just couldn't believe that her line manager hadn't told her to get some rest and come back when she was feeling better. I really felt for her, she should have been in bed.

While it is unkind and unwise for a person to work with a streaming cold, cold viruses on your foods are nothing much to worry about. Cold viruses only survive for up to an hour or so outside the body, though they can survive for longer on metal (so your tins are actually more 'dangerous' than your cauli)

Even without a cold, she handles cash as well as your fresh veg, which, of course, have been felt by other shoppers, as well as various animal pests.

Id be more worried about catching a cold from her directly.

I think yabu. Countless customers would have coughed near your salad or onto the belt or touched it with unclean hands before you. You just need to wash stuff.

I think I'd be more concerned about the cashier being ill, actually. Poor woman.