Level of hospitality
One Texas boss is telling the workers: no masks allowed.
That’s what a back-of-the-house employee at a Hillstone Restaurant Group establishment in Dallas was told last week, as restaurants prepared to reopen at 25% capacity, according to CBS Dallas.
That employee, who did not want to be identified publicly, expressed discomfort and was told to think about it—and then was removed from the schedule, the employee told CBS Dallas’ Brooke Rogers.
If you’re not willing to die on the job, you’re fired.
The employee said management also told her that face masks don’t complement the restaurant group’s style or level of hospitality.
Oddly enough that’s true of pretty much all restaurants, as well as shops, bars, theaters, offices, schools – lots of workplaces. They’re usual and undisturbing in medical settings, dentists’ offices, many factories, farms, construction sites and the like. I’ve worn dust masks on the job plenty of times. The public areas of restaurants naturally tend not to be full of people with masks in normal times, but these aren’t normal times.
Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Diana Cervantes called Hillstone’s decision concerning.
“It is really important to be able to wear those face coverings, especially if you can’t keep that six-foot social distancing, which of course when you go to a restaurant, that it very hard to maintain,” Cervantes, of UNT Health Science Center, said.
In fact impossible. There’s no way to put people’s food in front of them from six feet away.
She points to Governor Greg Abbott’s minimum standard health protocols for restaurants, which encourages social distancing first. But if that’s not feasible, it says measures such as face coverings should be rigorously practiced.
Which protects the customers as well as the workers, after all.
Hillstone management also points to the law, writing on its website: “Current orders do not require our staff or guests to wear face masks. If you are concerned about your safety in this respect, we hope you will join us a later date.”
Or how about never; never’s good for me.
Oh, I don’t know. There’s always those giant wooden flat shovels that bakers used to use to scoop bread from the back of the ovens. OK, more food might end up on the customer than on the table but if you’re selfish enough to expect to be waited on by unprotected staff during an on-going pandemic then surely hot soup in the lap is the least you deserve.
Besides, it’d be hella funny to watch and maybe provide some catharsis for the wait staff.
You have a point.
NZ have just reopened eateries for takeaway only, provided that it’s all contactless (including payment).
There have been some great examples of cafes having sorted systems for delivering takeaway coffee to the door using model trains or a jury rigged flat chute with pushing stick. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Especially when caffeine is involved.
They’re missing a trick, they could open a medically-themed restaurant. The possibilities are endless.
mrs latsot is a partner in a law firm and is in charge of one of the offices. Before the lockdown she installed some physical and procedural measures to protect her staff and is arranging others for when the office eventually reopens.
Her partners seem entirely oblivious of the need to protect their staff. Some of them are talking about their continuing to work from home while they send their staff into their offices, which they want to open to the public without restriction.
I’ve rarely seen mrs latsot so angry. And she lives with me.
latsot, my husband had to deal with me and that anger when we got an email on Monday from the college president detailing the planned reopening of the facilities on Monday. So far just contract supervisory staff, but he plans to have all or most of the support staff back by June 1. And we are in an area where the cases continue to rise at an alarming rate. It is worse now than it was when he “closed” the school (and I put that in quotes because he didn’t officially put us on facilities lockdown with everyone working from home until late April).
He hasn’t said anything about opening the dorms yet; they are apparently going to remain closed for the summer session, and all summer session classes are being offered remote. I had one that couldn’t be done that way (technically, I suppose I could devise ways to teach Ecology remote, but it would play havoc with all the field work that we do, and I don’t want the class to turn into people sitting at their computers sampling ecosystems I created on the computer).
So anyway, I am angry that there seems to be little recognition on his part that this is not only not over, it may not have hit the worst point yet. Meanwhile, my immediate supervisor is preparing us for the possibility of offering only remote classes through the fall, which I think is the most sensible plan, though converting my Environmental Science lab to remote only will be less than fully satisfying, especially in face of the new equipment I just ordered. Bummer. But some things are not worth dying for.
Oh, and on a personal note: just heard from my father. He and his wife are still well, in lockdown at their senior living center, but staying well. Always nice to get good news. (And he is a Trumpista who is NOT singing the Trump line; he is in favor of things staying closed until it is safe to reopen.)