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

[Anitarest]

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.

@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.

Exactly @icedcoffees

Have a word with yourself.

I've always been a bit put off by open food counters, such as help-yourself salad bars, where all and sundry can cough and sneeze over the food. Similarly, bakery counters in supermarkets where the goods are not wrapped. I've tended to avoid them, as I deem them to be unhygienic.

So, I voted YANBU in this case.

Someone working on a till could cough on their hands then scan your shopping. People doing home shopping or shelf filling could also cough or breath near food.
So basically you can't work in a supermarket if you're mask exempt. Bet you'll change your mind when there's no one to serve you.

Curious how many Brits are mask exempt, yet other countries just get on with it, with fines imposed on those who do not comply. Spain I think has just mandated masks outdoors too, and there have been plenty of tv reports from abroad showing even little kids wearing masks.
If you feel that you're vulnerable, of course you're going to want to see people serving you and around you wearing masks properly. Consider my last trip to the chemist to pick up a prescription. One bright spark wearing a balaclava with the bottom pulled up over his mouth, nose poking out, woman with him with manky mask covering mouth only, accompanying kid running all over the place coughing without any attempt to cover it. And a woman in the queue on the phone asking her husband to come in and deliver her mask because she'd forgotten it. Would that I could hand out fines and enforce them......

I have to agree. I think that people handling food directly should have to wear Masks.

I went to Five Guys Solihull the other day and not one single staff member was wearing a mask. There were probably about 10/12 of them making the food (in full view) and honestly not one of them was wearing a mask. I ate elsewhere.

I know it's not compulsory but I think in some places (like food prep) it should be.

@BligeMe

Curious how many Brits are mask exempt, yet other countries just get on with it, with fines imposed on those who do not comply. Spain I think has just mandated masks outdoors too, and there have been plenty of tv reports from abroad showing even little kids wearing masks. If you feel that you're vulnerable, of course you're going to want to see people serving you and around you wearing masks properly. Consider my last trip to the chemist to pick up a prescription. One bright spark wearing a balaclava with the bottom pulled up over his mouth, nose poking out, woman with him with manky mask covering mouth only, accompanying kid running all over the place coughing without any attempt to cover it. And a woman in the queue on the phone asking her husband to come in and deliver her mask because she'd forgotten it. Would that I could hand out fines and enforce them......

People can want whatever they like. Back in the real world, supermarkets cannot simply shove any old staff member onto deli counters and there is significant staffing pressure in the UK. Businesses do not necessarily have suitable alternative staff members available simply because a customer has decided that's what they prefer.

Curious how many Brits are mask exempt, yet other countries just get on with it, with fines imposed on those who do not comply. Spain I think has just mandated masks outdoors too, and there have been plenty of tv reports from abroad showing even little kids wearing masks.
If you feel that you're vulnerable, of course you're going to want to see people serving you and around you wearing masks properly. Consider my last trip to the chemist to pick up a prescription. One bright spark wearing a balaclava with the bottom pulled up over his mouth, nose poking out, woman with him with manky mask covering mouth only, accompanying kid running all over the place coughing without any attempt to cover it. And a woman in the queue on the phone asking her husband to come in and deliver her mask because she'd forgotten it. Would that I could hand out fines and enforce them

Wearing a mask incorrectly isn't the same as being exempt. Also it's a real shame for Spain if people who can't wear a mask due to disabilities are now being pushed out of public spaces. I don't think that's something we should be holding up as an example.

*I have to agree. I think that people handling food directly should have to wear Masks.

I went to Five Guys Solihull the other day and not one single staff member was wearing a mask. There were probably about 10/12 of them making the food (in full view) and honestly not one of them was wearing a mask. I ate elsewhere.*

Covid isn't spread through food.

And if you're so worried about Covid why are you out in restaurants in the first place? The greater risk is from other customers - people who are just like you. I mean i do get it, its much easier to police other people rather than sensibly manage the level of risk you're exposing yourself to. If you were that bothered you wouldn't be sitting about in restaurants where other people might behave in ways you don't like.

@Okbye

I have to agree. I think that people handling food directly should have to wear Masks.

I went to Five Guys Solihull the other day and not one single staff member was wearing a mask. There were probably about 10/12 of them making the food (in full view) and honestly not one of them was wearing a mask. I ate elsewhere.

I know it's not compulsory but I think in some places (like food prep) it should be.

A lot of these views seem to be based on an assumption that there's a sufficient supply of workers available for work in low paid service industries, as well as willing and able to observe whatever covid requirements you might want too. I really wouldn't be so sure. It isn't an employers market at the moment. We as a society need to get our heads round that.

@80sMum

I've always been a bit put off by open food counters, such as help-yourself salad bars, where all and sundry can cough and sneeze over the food. Similarly, bakery counters in supermarkets where the goods are not wrapped. I've tended to avoid them, as I deem them to be unhygienic.

So, I voted YANBU in this case.

Speaking as an old fart, I'm sure food was much more covered up back in the day. There seems to be a recent drive to be more European as far as I can see.

I quite get the ick seeing open containers of salads, cakes and bread all lying open and flat for droplets to land on them.

It never used to be this way, so I'm curious as to what changed when.

Masks do fuck all anyway apparently, so 🤷‍♀️

So you think they shouldn't be allowed to work? Oh and you don't get covid from surfaces anyway so you're being ridiculous.

@80sMum

I've always been a bit put off by open food counters, such as help-yourself salad bars, where all and sundry can cough and sneeze over the food. Similarly, bakery counters in supermarkets where the goods are not wrapped. I've tended to avoid them, as I deem them to be unhygienic.

So, I voted YANBU in this case.

The issue with salad bars isn't a trained member of staff with access to washing facilities and who isn't leaning over the tubs - it's the manky general public with their unwashed fingers poking into things and hacking over food that's been sitting around for ages being poked at by others.

There is no evidence that covid is spread through food.

In general I'm not keen on open food counters though, but that's mainly because of the general public and not the staff. I used to live near a lovely market but most of the stalls selling bread, cakes, cheese etc. just displayed everything uncovered on a table. The amount of people I saw leaning over it all with their coats hanging over the bread and kids touching the products near the edge of the table put me off shopping from them. Same with cafes that keep their cakes on a plate on an open counter instead of using glass covers.

The lanyards mean their exempt from wearing masks and no they can't just work elsewhere most deli workers are trained to work at the deli shelf stackers are usually teens on vacation if you have a problem shop elsewhere but don't be a bitch to people trying to do their jobs

There is no evidence that covid is spread through food.

So the whole eating a bat thing was a hoax ?

The whole eating a bat thing wasn’t a hoax, it was a joke. Nobody has ever seriously suggested that Covid was caught from someone eating a bat. It was suggested that it could have started with people coming into contact with bats and/or pangolins being kept alive in the market but no scientist ever suggested it came from eating infected meat.

@SerendipityJane

There is no evidence that covid is spread through food.

So the whole eating a bat thing was a hoax ?

Nah, not a hoax. Just a racist trope about Chinese eating habits.

@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.

Gloves are known to reduce the incidence of handwashing and are, in the absence of cultural/religious reasons to wish to avoid touching certain products, to avoid chilli irritation or when a person has a skin condition on their hands that leaves them open to bacterial infection/contamination of the food from bodily fluids, an actual increased risk factor for poor hygiene practices in food preparation.

In that speficic role yes I'm afraid they should be in masks or moved elsewhere.

YANBU.I would shop elsewhere.

Did you care about deli workers wearing masks before covid? If not then why do you care now?

If they work for a supermarket that is anything like mine, any counter worker who is working with food and is mask exempt has to take a LFT before every shift, and if they have even the slightest hint of covid symptoms they are not allowed to come in and must isolate until they get a negative PCR. Other staff are advised to do LFT tests before work but because they are wearing a mask then they are classed as following the compliance required for the store to be deemed "covid safe" and those LFTs aren't a requirement.

So in my store, at least, I would much rather be served by an unmasked deli worker as I know they have had a negative LFT within the last 12hrs as opposed to the masked worker who could be an asymptomatic carrier but hasn't done an LFT for months and are unaware of that because they're wearing a mask

*23:52Waxonwaxoff0

Brieandcamembert

I don't understand the narrative of the poor people that don't want to wear masks should still be allowed hear the food. Shall we give surgeons special dispensation not to wear them too if they find them a bit uncomfortable?

Except you don't know that they "don't want" to wear masks. They could well be exempt*

But the reasons people decide they are exempt for are often ridiculous. There are probably a small population of people who truly can't because of highly genuinely traumatic associations. That is very valid.

So many "don't like the sensation" ( I have Asperger's, I understand sensory processing. I have severe noise sensitivity but have to out up with it. It's uncomfortable but possible).

And those who claim they are too anxious to wear a mask.(as previously stated, those with a genuine awful trauma I do not include in this). It's the fashionably anxious.

I wear one for hours at a time at work and would be told I can't do my job if I don't. People really need to learn to just get on with it.

It's suddenly like we live in China. Wouldn't you much prefer to take back our perfectly reasonable, rational liberal democracy where citizens don't demand such a level of control over others?