To be shocked by what DD told me about her workplace?

[whatinthenameofcrapisthis]

DD(17) has a part time job at Greggs around her college hours. She told me today that they (the staff) regularly find used needles in the toilets from people injecting drugs, and that it's well known that particular people spend a long time in the toilets doing that. The same people also often shoplift sandwiches and drinks. I asked DD what the policy is for dealing with this, ie do they contact the police, and she said "we don't ring the police, we just report the drug use via a specified number", ie a drug hotline for Greggs itself (?), and that some staff have protective equipment to pick up needles. I was so baffled by this.

Surely used needles being left in toilets is a matter for the police? Greggs staff are not paid enough to have to deal with this surely? I told my daughter she should not be doing this.
Granted it's not the best area where the store is that she works at, lots of poverty and crime etc, but still... This has really shocked me!

AIBU to expect my teen daughter who is paid minimum wage in Greggs not to have to handle used needles?!

In my home town, the McDonalds near the ‘druggy’ park has ultraviolet lights in the toilets. Basically, you can’t see your veins to inject due to the lighting. Very depressing but it kept them out. Although, if you ate there, you had to make sure your burger and fries were smack in front of you or they would swipe them!

I would probably drill into her the risks of touching a used needle and explain that under no circumstances is she to lie to you if accidents happen or if she's coerced by a senior member to dispose of the needle and she ends up going against your advice.

Needle stick injury:
Do not put it into your mouth (if it's your finger etc)
Wash and squeeze the wound under water.
Go straight to A&E for a blood test to rule out hepatitis and updates on tetanus etc.
Remind her that following a needle stick injury her responsibility is not for senior to discharge her, end of shift etc. It's not for her to avoid telling family in case she gets into trouble for not doing as asked her responsibility is to her health.
Remember that your dd is used to listening to teaching staff etc and following instructions from adults so she may feel pressured to just do as a senior staff member asks... who is not the authority over her health.

My collegue worked at a fast food place around 20 years ago and found a dead body of a drug user in their toilets.
The fast food place installed the UV lights, he left the job, but it must have been going on for years.

I'd encourage her to find a job in a better area. Maybe it's naive to be shocked that this type of thing is commonplace in some places, and yes, it's impossible to avoid all danger and unpleasantness in the world, but I still do my best to minimise my chances of encountering it.

Whilst I think it's a very sad sign of the times thst this happens, I think you're being unreasonable to be shocked or surprised , unless you've been living in a different country for the last 20 years.

Wow I didn't know this?! So you can steal items of a lower value than £200 and basically that's fine? 😳

YANBU for being shocked that your DD & colleagues have to clean up needles, but naive to think that it's a police matter.

If you find used needles in a play park for example, it gets reported to the council, to come and clean it.

Since its on private property its down to Greggs to clean it up.

Greggs need to install a code lock for the toilet. Its not acceptable to expect staff to clean it up due to not installing preventative measures. As you said it's a matter of time before a child or vulnerable person is injured with one. Or maybe they should just get rid of the customer toilets. Not ideal but I don't think any of the greggs I've been to have toilets to use.

yes we are looking for other jobs. It's a shame as she enjoys the rest of the job.

God I am so stupid, have just realised why the one lad comes in and buys tin foil.

lol. I'm not angry at anyone and I am perfectly calm 😂

I said I was surprised. Which is not the same as angry.

Dear god 😳

lol finding a crack head passed out in the toilets is a daily struggle occurance for a tesco worker we even locked one in overnight once by mistake

Is that the one opposite central station? That area is full of junkies. I walk past it and they are constantly running out shoplifting from the shop. The poor staff .

@aridiculousargument
No we don't live on that side of the city, I already clarified that.

Ooh u just reminded me of the guy who walks round the whole store in the middle of the day with shit pouring out of his trousers fun times at Tesco

Wow that’s truely horrific.

My brother also runs a pub in Victoria and they have a resident crackhead who sleeps outside and barks at customers. He's been there for 2 years. It doesn't out of customers but tourists do feel threatened by him.

When my brother goes outside to tell him to be quiet he goes "sorry mate I'm just bored". Quietens down, then he's off again barking or singing shirtless outside 😂. He's also barred as he tried to put his own head through a fruit machine. Because he was asked to leave for selling stolen meat!

*puts

This isn’t true at all

It's not morally fine ofc, but the Police aren't likely to bother prosecuting if the offence is under this amount...

The language on this thread is abhorrent. Druggies/junkies, crack heads. These are real human people. The majority who have suffered incredible trauma which has led them down the path they are on. Very few people actively chose to wake up one day and have an addiction to drugs. Yes some addicts are arseholes but they would be arseholes either way.

@whatinthenameofcrapisthis I am sorry that you have a daughter that is having to deal with this

Unfortunately this is part and parcel of working in hospitality because no matter the customer, drink or drugs in - wits out :(

Ive worked in the sector for 40 years and nothing shocks me anymore. Well it does, I cant believe how low behaviour has got

When I started out working in pubs, long before paid bouncers were the norm, women were often employed as floor staff to keep the peace, lads were less likely to thump a female - now thats all changed and pubs/clubs/etc now employ trained security

We see drugs being sold and we would oike them out ourselves . Because the toe rags still had some sense of decorum about them

Toilets, Ive seen the lot, one toilet a very well dressed woman in office attire, including the heels, actually standing on the seat to have a pee!! And missing the pan totally

And the amount of poo spread on the walls, or the toilets totally blocked with loo rolls and god alone knows what, or the loos seats broken from those popping in for a quickie. The used condoms just dropped on the floor.

And dont even talk about drunk women on their period :(

Needles are now the next thing we have to deal with :( Even where I work now, middle class area, we have them. And it is shocking and scarey

Even clearing tables, filled nappy anyone? Tissues full of snot ? Chewed up and spat out food? ( and its not always children ) The amount of shit and crap in general we deal with every day would turn most peoples stomach

Mine turned today with a customers nasel drip landing on my hand. Minor in the grand scheme of things but thats working with the public for you - a server/shop worker/ bar person - we are totally invisible to the general customer , we arent human , we are low paid workers just there to make sure you have the night/lunch/breakfast experience you have paid for.

Just please leave the loo as you find

Starbucks in Manchester print the code of the loo door lock on the receipt. Where I live live Greggs don't have a loo anyway but if needles are being found regularly it does sound like a code needs to be on the loo door.

I mean, I work at one of the top universities in the UK and we share our research centre with an NHS clinic that is public access. It took years of people doing drugs and having sex - yes, members of the public coming into our building to have sex in the toilets! - for the university to put a key code on the doors. This is in a fairly upscale urban area with a large wealthy/foreign student population. It's not the sort of area people imagine when they picture public sex and drug use. Nothing would shock me anymore! I think sadly anywhere with a public toilet is likely to deal with this to an extent.

Putting a key code on the door may help to an extent, but it may also put staff in the firing line for harassment and aggression if someone wants it and the staff won't hand it over. I don't think there is an easy solution other than closing the toilets really and pushing the problem elsewhere.

Ha ha utake it you don’t work a minimum wage job where you are constantly at risk of being stabbed spat at pushed over etc etc the company you work for don’t care nor do the police
or u might feel sorry for someone like me a widowed single parent working a night shift when the poor poor crack head who had a terrible start to life (as did I) decided he wanted to ram raid the shop and In the process injured us.poor poor man!!!!