Sick in the kitchen
March 24th, 2009 by Besha Rodell in RestaurantsIt’s now being reported that the wave of customer illness that shut down the Fat Duck is probably linked to kitchen employees coming to work while they were sick. I find this interesting — it’s a part of kitchen culture that’s not discussed much when talking about food safety. In most restaurants (and the better the restaurant the more this is true, usually), cooks simply do not call in sick. Part of the culture is that you come to work no matter what. I’ve seen chefs and cooks work through the most horrific illnesses. You see it all the time, even in reality TV — chefs get sick and then are treated as weaklings if they don’t suck it up and work. I wonder if the incident at the Fat Duck will make anyone pause to think that maybe kitchen machismo (and crazy labor standards) might pose a real threat to customers and restaurant credibility.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
It’s true across all walks of the working world; most of us are allotted a laughably small number of sick days annually, and we’re generally penalized for taking time off no matter the reason. It could very well be the single clearest sign of the unhealthily workaholic nature of American society.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
in my kitchen no one calls out sick. your fired.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
spoon thai opens up this week.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
The same is true in hospitals, so nurses must report in even when they’re ill and probably contagious.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
i have seen employees literally get stabbed in the skull, go to the hospital and comeback to work and finish out their shift. In high end kitchens especially you will never see anyone call out sick for any reason. And something as trivial as a cold sure as hell doesn’t cut it for taking a off.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
You never call in sick from a good kitchen because calling in sick one day can mean, three years working in shitholes til someone gives you a shot again.
March 25th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Having worked in numerous restaurants, both corporate and mom-n-pop, I learned that the reason employees do not call in sick is because if they do, the manager or owner, rather than MANAGING his crew, gives the sick employee a list of the employees who have the day off. It then becomes the sick employee’s responsibility to get on the phone and find someone to cover their shift. If nobody takes the shift, you either go to work sick, or you are AWOL and possibly fired.
I’ve seen employees serving food from steam trays with 8 inch snot loogies dangling from their nose. It’s pathetic and inexcusable and it’s entirely the fault of management.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
“in my kitchen no one calls out sick. your fired.”
That is one enlightened manager. Please tell me the restaurant, so I make damned sure to never eat there for fear that the sous chef has a fever.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
It is a nice thought, but it probably won’t happen. This unspoken rule is too thoroughly embedded in kitchen culture. You go home sick/injured and you’ll pay for it. I remember getting clocked in the face with the edge of the walk-in door by one of our more clumsy (read: constantly drunk) servers during prep. I had a gash in my cheek and my eye was completely swollen shut an hour into service. My chef called me cyclops for the rest of the night, but that was all that was said. I knew going home in the middle of Saturday night service was simply not an option. I’ve seen people work through 10x worse–hot oil burns, oyster knives through the hands, etc. A lot of it is machismo and brotherhood, but most of it concern’s the bottom line. It is a sad reality that cooks have to surrender almost every part of themselves to the industry to achieve any measure of success or just keep their jobs. But that–save a few exceptions–is just the way it is.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
dale its spoon
March 26th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Part of the problem it seems is that servers and chefs take them selves and what they do far to seriously. It is not brain surgery and nobody’s life is being saved. I love a good meal and am a bit of a food snob but my body does not know the difference between taco bell and Rathbuns. It just needs food and really all you are doing is cooking it or handing it to me. Lighten up, take a sick day, and do not kill your self over what is a pretty shitty job.
PS
My job is no better but i do not wax poeticly about its valor constantly either.
April 25th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I NEVER let my employees come into work sick.
I’ve coached several “take-it-for-the-team” employees who come into work sick. Not only is it against FDA regs (health inspectors would have a fit), but in a kitchen you work so close together that you’re liable to infect your whole crew.
Matter-o-fact, I just guiltily called into work just now. My exact words: “I’m not too sick to work — but I’m too sick to come in to work.”