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.

Covid has made a lot of people start to think they’re entitled to control others to assuage their own anxieties. YABU - buy it prepackaged if you’re that bothered. I’d much rather go to places they don’t make their staff work in masks all day.

Masks, especially fabric ones, may not stop you from getting COVID but do help in preventing you from spreading it so if we all wear one it slows down transmission, all about caring about others really.
DH is a musician and has to do a LFT before each gig so I always presume that workers elsewhere have to do the same if they don’t wear a mask, but I went to an artisan bakery before Christmas, after the regulations about wearing masks in shops, and the person serving had her mask around her neck while talking to an unmasked friend who was waiting for coffee, when the friend left she pulled up her mask to serve me!

@PineappleMojito

Covid has made a lot of people start to think they’re entitled to control others to assuage their own anxieties. YABU - buy it prepackaged if you’re that bothered. I’d much rather go to places they don’t make their staff work in masks all day.

It certainly has!

People who are concerned about aerosols from breathing on their food should be more worried about what happens behind the scenes of a deli counter.

I used to work on a deli counter and hot chicken counter at Tesco as a student & I vowed to never eat from one again after seeing firsthand what happens!

To answer your question OP, yes you are being very unreasonable. The whole point of a deli counter is to offer an interpersonal exchange you otherwise wouldn’t get from just grabbing it from the shelf - why would someone struggle to listen to what someone is saying when they could just grab it from the shelf (and in your case, less chance of contaminated with aerosol sprays). Do you feel the same way about chefs, fast food workers, the ice cream man?

Wearing a mask to protect others is at most a small convenience, and in no way akin to loss of “rational liberal democracy”

Don’t complain if I ask for a masked server.

Disgusting and discriminatory attitude. Fortunately, employers are not permitted (under law) to discriminate against (medically mask exempt) staff on medical grounds.

I agree OP , should not have a customer facing role if they won't wear a mask.

@Carriemac

I agree OP , should not have a customer facing role if they won't wear a mask.

You're in favour of people being discriminated against in the workplace on medical grounds.

Have I woken up in the 1970's?

I presume therefore that you consider the equality act unreasonable. Should we just scrap the act then?

Jesus Christ! Get a grip!
How are you even getting through a day with this kind of crap upsetting you?

You know the server who is all done up in a mask, hat, hairnet, beard net and pinny.....might not have washed their hands after going to the loo or picking their nose before serving you your delicacies.
So all things considered........

@PineappleMojito

Covid has made a lot of people start to think they’re entitled to control others to assuage their own anxieties. YABU - buy it prepackaged if you’re that bothered. I’d much rather go to places they don’t make their staff work in masks all day.

There are swathes of people who have been waiting for this chance for a generation.

You don't think they're going to let it go so easily do you ?

Nearly 2 years of this and you still have no idea how covid spreads. YABU.

I went to an artisan bakery before Christmas, after the regulations about wearing masks in shops, and the person serving had her mask around her neck while talking to an unmasked friend who was waiting for coffee, when the friend left she pulled up her mask to serve me!

And? How do you know that the customer wasn't hard of hearing and needed to lipread which the staff member was aware of, @Tinabn?

I work in a supermarket, we have a lot of regular customers who know I am hard of hearing (and when it's busy with a lot of background noise then it is almost impossible for me to hear people from behind a screen and wearing masks) so they automatically take their mask down to speak to me, but then put it back on when they move away.

Equally we have some regular customers who we all know are hard of hearing or deaf and so staff automatically take their mask down to allow them to lip read. If those (usually elderly) customers want to have a bit of a chat while we are there then we are going to have a chat with them as well since, for a lot of people, coming to the supermarket and seeing rhe staff is the only regular human interaction they have at the minute.

@melj1213

I went to an artisan bakery before Christmas, after the regulations about wearing masks in shops, and the person serving had her mask around her neck while talking to an unmasked friend who was waiting for coffee, when the friend left she pulled up her mask to serve me!

And? How do you know that the customer wasn't hard of hearing and needed to lipread which the staff member was aware of, @Tinabn?

I work in a supermarket, we have a lot of regular customers who know I am hard of hearing (and when it's busy with a lot of background noise then it is almost impossible for me to hear people from behind a screen and wearing masks) so they automatically take their mask down to speak to me, but then put it back on when they move away.

Equally we have some regular customers who we all know are hard of hearing or deaf and so staff automatically take their mask down to allow them to lip read. If those (usually elderly) customers want to have a bit of a chat while we are there then we are going to have a chat with them as well since, for a lot of people, coming to the supermarket and seeing rhe staff is the only regular human interaction they have at the minute.

Because the customer -who was obviously a friend- had her toddler and unmasked partner with her and often had her back to the salesperson and was able to continue the - very long - conversation. I observe and don’t make unfounded judgements…..BUT….. I hope you don’t keep other customers standing around like a spare part while you have a catch up with friends!

To be fair, it’s not all about covid…I’m just not especially partial to having unwrapped foods inadvertently sprayed by a strangers spit

You don't catch covid by ingesting it.

@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 less hygienic than hair washing your hands. Chefs don't use gloves. They do in subway but they don't always change them between sandwiches even though I'm sure they're meant to

Yes, lots of food handling people seem to view gloves as a magic forcefield. A went to a butcher who looked all thorough as he wore his gloves to serve the meat... And proceeded to handle the cash and everything with the gloves on and never a wash. If take bare hands and handwoven between tasks, starting on the counter etc instead of gloves any day.