There has been a lot of discussion on these boards about the rise of norovirus from restaurants with many of our members refusing to eat outside of their homes.


Personally, I think two things have happened. One, the restaurant industry has become less selective in their staff with a huge amount of worker turnaround. This leads to a staff of people who really have no vested interest in their jobs. They perceive the job as here today and gone tomorrow with many of them not lasting more than a month.


Another reason for the rise in foodborne illness may be in the demands of the managment. Most of the restaurant chains in this country have a hard enough time finding people to work. If one or two people are out for illness, the stress on the other workers and the service, or lack thereof, to the customers is enormous. Just look at the tremendous lines at places like Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Red Robin and the like. For any of those places to be short two or three people at any given time would create tremendous burden on the rest of the staff. To that end, many of the managers make incredible demands with the first one being - "You don't show up, you're fired." These restaurant chainsare very rigid in their expectations. They are not interested in hearing that someone had "a little stomach flu" and couldn't come to work when the bottom line numbers are just about all they look at.My guess if these stores were not corporate run established and instead franchised, the attitude of the manager (who would probably be the owner) would change and thekitchens would be cleaned up.


My BIL isVice President of Food Service at a large area hospital. He has volumes upon volumes of information regarding proper food handling. He has told me that in almost every instance, the bathroom of a restaurant reflects what is going on in the kitchen. If the bathroom is a mess, leave the establishment and don't let the door hit you on the way out.


At one time a restaurant was owned by a family who cared about their business. Their employees were family membersalso cared equally about the business and built a report with the customers. In a time when no one gives a hoot, the price is paid by us. I guess we have to be more vigilant about where we go and what we eat.


Stella