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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect staff on delicatessen counters to wear masks, not lanyards?

118 replies

Anitarest · 24/12/2021 22:52

Exactly that. If you can’t wear a mask, you should stack shelves or work in the till behind a screen, not on a delicatessen or sandwich counter. Your aerosols are just as potentially dangerous as mine and they’re falling on my cooked meat or cheese etc. Don’t complain if I ask for a masked server.

OP posts:
LynxGiftsetAndSocks · 25/12/2021 00:45

@Chloemol

I agree. Just look at that ad on the tv showing breathing droplets out

Personally they should wear them anyway regardless of covid, not just them but anyone who deals with fresh food

Await my beating from MNetters

Why?

Explain the science..

Hawkins001 · 25/12/2021 00:47

Look how the film contagion and the virus happened, a chef not washing hands properly, when in contact with other people

LynxGiftsetAndSocks · 25/12/2021 00:47

@Bucanarab

Lolling away at all the posters outraged at the thought of making deli/fresh food workers wear a mask. Got to wonder if they'd be quite so lackadaisical if said workers had tb, measles, mumps, or the flu. I'd wager my mortgage they'd be the first to have a hissy fit if they were hospitalised from contracting tb cause a deli worker coughed all over their sliced ham.

TB is also, airborne... spread like covid

Did you not know that?

Hawkins001 · 25/12/2021 00:49

There was also typhoid Mary the cook, I don't remember the details.

NoNotMeNoSiree · 25/12/2021 01:07

I wear a mask when out in the shops, but it wouldn't even occur to me to care or notice if others are or not.
YABU

Marcipex · 25/12/2021 01:16

YANBU I think you’re right.
I’d vote with my feet though and then email the head office.

The OP isn’t suggesting the lanyard wearers are thrown to the wolves, only that they should be trained in other roles.

I know people who say they simply don’t want to wear a mask and it contravenes their rights.
I even know one who says she has panic attacks in a mask. She is a professional diver!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 25/12/2021 01:22

@Hawkins001

Look how the film contagion and the virus happened, a chef not washing hands properly, when in contact with other people
You know that wasn't real, don't you?
NoNotMeNoSiree · 25/12/2021 01:27

mooncup it is MN after all, nothing would surprise me on here anymore if they didn't realise lol

Hawkins001 · 25/12/2021 01:39

@allNeverDropYourMooncup

Better non fictional example, how many germs were spread before scientists knew about germ theory and bacteria and the case of Mary Mallon.

Hawkins001 · 25/12/2021 01:40

@NoNotMeNoSiree

mooncup it is MN after all, nothing would surprise me on here anymore if they didn't realise lol
Care to share your detail research notes and studies that support your conclusions or is this a case of I presume ?
Tabbydancer · 25/12/2021 02:39

I agree
There was a mask exempt woman in John Lewis yesterday serving behind the only counter out of four without a screen protector
Why?

Rangoon · 25/12/2021 03:26

I was a bit nonplussed when the shampoo girl who was caping me up at the hairdressers wasn't wearing a mask. I asked my stylist who said she had an exemption. I still don't feel comfortable with her breathing over me. Maybe my stylist noticed because somebody else washed the tint off my hair. We do live in a low covid area though.

MadameMinimes · 25/12/2021 07:56

Typhoid is a stupid comparison for Covid. It’s spread by fecal-oral transmission and wearing a mask would do diddly squat if a person with Typhoid was making your food. It’s much more comparable to something like norovirus in terms of transmission. I wouldn’t want a person with either preparing my food, and a mask would make no difference to their chance of infecting me.

Neither Covid or TB are transmitted that way. You don’t catch TB or Covid from eating food that someone breathed near to.

Lilypad221 · 25/12/2021 08:28

I agree with the OP. Even without covid as a reason and just for general hygiene purposes.

Bluntness100 · 25/12/2021 08:32

To be honest, no I’m ok with no mask. But I was in a little independent sandwich shop the other day, one which is historically very good and did fab sandwiches, I was picking one up for my husband and the woman wasn’t wearing gloves.

I ordered and paid and when she started to make the sandwich I asked her if she didn’t wear gloves to prepare food, and she said, no, so I asked for my money back and left.

I’m not overly cautious but I was actually quite disgusted.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 25/12/2021 08:33

Wow, yet another person who thinks that society should be made even more divided than it already is, and advocates for some people being treated like second class citizens regardless of the reasons behind their actions.

OP, people like you just make the world a worse place. Merry fucking Christmas Hmm

BigYellowHat · 25/12/2021 08:35

I love these sorts of threads. When the OP dares to suggest something sensible, like you know hygiene and reducing the risk of catching covid her idea is scoffed at. Yet when someone sees another person within 10 feet of them outside walking their dog they’re on here making a thread about it, completely bonkers.

I’m with you @Anitarest When there’s so many other things in the supermarket the employee could be doing then why the extra risk?

VikingOnTheFridge · 25/12/2021 08:38

@BigYellowHat

I love these sorts of threads. When the OP dares to suggest something sensible, like you know hygiene and reducing the risk of catching covid her idea is scoffed at. Yet when someone sees another person within 10 feet of them outside walking their dog they’re on here making a thread about it, completely bonkers.

I’m with you @Anitarest When there’s so many other things in the supermarket the employee could be doing then why the extra risk?

Erm, I think the people on this thread pointing out that OP is being ridiculous are probably a different group entirely to the 10 feet away dog ones...
LaBellina · 25/12/2021 08:39

@ilovesooty

I agree with the OP, in that I don't think it's an area that unmasked employees should be working in. I'd shop elsewhere.
Because someone breathes near your food? Wow.

OP YABU. It’s none of your business why they’re not wearing a mask and your anxiety is, frankly, not their problem to solve.

ShesMadeaTwatOfMePam · 25/12/2021 08:39

It's illegal to discriminate on the ground of disability. It would be unlawful for a supermarket to move a staff member to another department because they have a disability that prevents them from wearing a mask. You have no way of knowing by looking at someone whether they have a disability or they just don't fancy wearing a mask so best to assume that everyone who hasn't got one on, has a reason for it.

LaBellina · 25/12/2021 08:40

@BrightYellowDaffodil

Wow, yet another person who thinks that society should be made even more divided than it already is, and advocates for some people being treated like second class citizens regardless of the reasons behind their actions.

OP, people like you just make the world a worse place. Merry fucking Christmas Hmm

Completely agree with this @BrightYellowDaffodil

Threads like this actually make me really sad.

icedcoffees · 25/12/2021 08:41

When there’s so many other things in the supermarket the employee could be doing then why the extra risk?

Says someone who clearly doesn't know how the fresh food departments work.

You can't just switch John the butcher with Brenda from the tills. Working on the food counters requires food hygiene tests and knowledge, you have to learn (and be signed off) on how to use all the equipment, how to avoid cross-contamination etc. You also have to be a certain age to be able to use certain things too.

You can't just put someone on there and let them get on with it - they have to be trained and they have to pass all sorts of checks to be there unsupervised.

MrsMoastyToasty · 25/12/2021 08:42

About 20 years ago DH worked in an industrial bakery . Wearing hairnets and face coverings (particularly if the employee had facial hair) was the norm. Employees who worked on the retail side of the same business didn't have to. I never understood the logic of that. Surely my last point of contact was at the counter.

LaBellina · 25/12/2021 08:43

@Bluntness100

To be honest, no I’m ok with no mask. But I was in a little independent sandwich shop the other day, one which is historically very good and did fab sandwiches, I was picking one up for my husband and the woman wasn’t wearing gloves.

I ordered and paid and when she started to make the sandwich I asked her if she didn’t wear gloves to prepare food, and she said, no, so I asked for my money back and left.

I’m not overly cautious but I was actually quite disgusted.

But that has nothing to do with Covid, I wouldn’t like it either but not because of Covid risk. Money is one of the dirtiest things you can touch and I wouldn’t like it if someone made my sandwich after touching the till/ money and then started making my food without washing their hands or wearing gloves. That’s just disgusting.
VikingOnTheFridge · 25/12/2021 08:43

@icedcoffees

When there’s so many other things in the supermarket the employee could be doing then why the extra risk?

Says someone who clearly doesn't know how the fresh food departments work.

You can't just switch John the butcher with Brenda from the tills. Working on the food counters requires food hygiene tests and knowledge, you have to learn (and be signed off) on how to use all the equipment, how to avoid cross-contamination etc. You also have to be a certain age to be able to use certain things too.

You can't just put someone on there and let them get on with it - they have to be trained and they have to pass all sorts of checks to be there unsupervised.

There is also the point that a significant minority of the staff are probably off with covid at the moment. The number of organisations with any staffing slack at the moment has got to be pretty low. Maybe she was only there because the usual deli staff all have covid and she's the only other trained person.