Sick coworker at a cafe - what are my chances?

[yourx1nexnxonly]

I think I may have been exposed to a flu or sv. I work at a cafe, making and serving drinks and pastries, and I my shift overlapped with this one girl on Tuesday from 4:30-5:30pm. She seemed to feel fine then, but as I was working, I drank a glass of milk and ate a cookie while I was around her. Today (Thursday), she told me that she came down with a really bad flu and has been vomiting for hours. She told me this at 10pm on Thursday night. I'm so afraid that she may have been carrying the virus then, and the fact that I ate while on shift with her is really worrying me. It's also really scary because I don't think she has the best hygiene -- she's had pink eye recently, so the possibility of her not washing her hands is there. I'm also really afraid for our customers because she worked early this morning and touched everyone's drinks and pastries. I'm trying to talk myself out of the fear, but I need some help. I felt totally fine until I heard about her being sick, and now I'm feeling anxious (and possibly inventing symptoms in my mind). Do you guys think I'm safe from catching whatever she has? What about our customers?

[paulinek]

I'd say your chances are zero as she wasn't showing symptoms when you last saw her - the germ is spread in the vomit and poo of an infected person and at that stage there wasn't any. As for touching peoples pastries and her having poor hygiene - don't your employers make sure staff wash their hands thoroughly at the start of every shift? That is basic health & safety stuff! Your customers will have been ok too but just generally speaking she really should be washing her hands before serving food to the public and thats not for emet reasons, just general hygiene reasons and to help reduce the spread of other illnesses like colds.

[2jo2]

This seriously pisses me off because it's sooooo hard for me to go and eat at a restaurant or eat basically anything that either me or my husband have prepared, so to be suspicious of people coming to work sick and spreading germs and then actually find out an instance where someone HAD been sick and may not be washing their hands properly when serving other people food.... grrrrr.....
If she didn't prepare what you ate and didn't serve it to you, and if you clean your restaurant properly, your exposure risk wouldn't have been different than any other normal day I would have to say.

[spilled_milk]

She should really have been sent home. Next time that happens I wouldn't hesitate to "snitch" to your employer. It's actually a huge health code violation.

You will be fine. She wasn't showing symptoms when you were eating, and you made it yourself I assume. So no worries!

[yourx1nexnxonly]

Thanks everyone! Everything turned out fine. Yes, all coworkers are supposed to wash their hands before and periodically during each shift, but we all know that everyone doesn't have the best hygiene habits.

[DeadxxInside92]

Aren't you guys required to wear gloves? I'll never understand why that rule is not enforced in most restaurant establishments. When I worked in a restaurant, we had to wear gloves when we were dealing with food and every time we came in contact with something i.e raw meat, we'd have to wash our hands and get a new pair of gloves. Our manager made sure that rule was always, always understood. Why isn't every place that awesome? haha

[paulinek]

Aren't you guys required to wear gloves? I'll never understand why that rule is not enforced in most restaurant establishments. When I worked in a restaurant, we had to wear gloves when we were dealing with food and every time we came in contact with something i.e raw meat, we'd have to wash our hands and get a new pair of gloves. Our manager made sure that rule was always, always understood. Why isn't every place that awesome? haha

I'll tell you what really annoys/disgusts me is when food workers also handle money like ice cream men or in cafes where there isn't someone permanently on the till - i agree about gloves but there's a really nice bakery i go in and it's got a 5* scores on the doors hygiene certificate and they wear gloves but also handle money so what's the point?! I go in for hot stuff like their pizza slices and sausage rolls so they us tongs to pick them up but they use fingers for making sandwiches.

[spilled_milk]

I'll tell you what really annoys/disgusts me is when food workers also handle money like ice cream men or in cafes where there isn't someone permanently on the till - i agree about gloves but there's a really nice bakery i go in and it's got a 5* scores on the doors hygiene certificate and they wear gloves but also handle money so what's the point?! I go in for hot stuff like their pizza slices and sausage rolls so they us tongs to pick them up but they use fingers for making sandwiches.

I worked at a place where I both worked on the line and used the register. We wore gloves on the line but we didn't wear them for the register, and we were required to change them after every few sandwiches and DEFINITELY after using the register.

[DeadxxInside92]

We were required to wash our hands after dealing with cash as well! I think throughout the duration of an entire shift, each employee would have changed their gloves at least 20 times per 8 hour shift. Trust me we had enough boxes for it!!