Why Restaurant Employees Should Be Allowed Sick Leave

Many of us have had the feeling where we start to feel a bit of a bug coming one evening before a shift at work. We might gobble some fruit or gulp down some juice to try and ward off the impending illness, but nevertheless, we wake up the next morning sick. Normally, we can stick it out and get through a day or two with a head cold, but sometimes we’re so sick and virtually incapacitated that our ability to be even remotely productive at work is compromised along with our immune system; sometimes we feel that we really can’t make it.

Still, financial and vocational pressures yank us out of bed and make us get ready for a miserable day at our jobs. We might think, “I really need the money today,” or, “My boss will surely think that I’m faking it”, and we decide to neglect a healthy recovery in exchange for our daily wage. These are the complaints of many workers today, and with flu season just barely behind us there are probably some less-than-healthy employees inhabiting the places that we regularly come into contact with. In particular, restaurants offer some of the most inflexible schedules for their employees since the absence of one employee could impact the entire restaurant’s productivity and success for the night. Because of this, managerial staffs impose heavy pressures on employees to attend a shift regardless of their workers’ health conditions. Obviously, this poses risks to not only other employees, but to paying customers, as well. Let’s imagine how one worker’s presence could affect a dining establishment on a typical day:

One day a server manages to make it to work, despite having contracted what he or she believes to be the flu. They would like to stay home and recover, but rent is due in just a few days and their manager notoriously feigns compassion toward illness among his employees. The server shows up to work and clocks in on an available computer at the hostess’ stand – without having had time to wash his hands on the way to work, he transmits traces of the virus onto the screen that all subsequently arriving employees will use as they arrive at and leave the restaurant. He then moves to the back of the house, where all the food in the entire restaurant is prepared. He manages to use small dollops of hand sanitizer as often as possible to avoid contaminating the food, but an accidental wipe of the face or scratch of the nose potentially introduces bacteria or a virus to his fingers, which still manage to probe the outside of each dish that he serves.

As he arrives at each table he attempts to appear gregarious and charming, despite his noticeable weakness and fatigue. Every time he speaks loudly or musters a laugh around the customers his mouth ejects undetectable saliva that carries the sickness, along with traces of his bile (if he has been vomiting) into the air that surrounds each customer. One table claims it is finished, the meal was to its liking, and that it would like the final check as soon as possible. The server makes his way toward another register – maybe the one he clocked in on, maybe not – and submits the information to print the table’s check, poking the touch screen used by all the other servers in his area with his potentially unclean fingers. He hastily returns to the table, reveals his waiter’s twofold with the check slid discreetly inside, politely sets it on the table and warmly assures them that “there’s no rush” to pay. The customers reach for the twofold that has been sitting in the pocket of the server’s apron all day, and which has likely been marinating in air of his apartment.

A few hours in and the server is having difficulty making it through the shift with his persistent nausea. He makes frequent trips to the restroom to splash water on his face, wash his hands, and take a break from the agony of waiting tables while ill. His movements are more sluggish, and the contrived charm that he managed for the tables at the beginning of his shift fades into a sunken despair – he knows that there are a few hours left to go.

Attribution: Velovotee

Management begins to notice that the server isn’t his normal self, and that his productivity is waning as the shift goes on. The manager fears that there will be complaints and that the customers’ discontent will prevent things from running smoothly. He considers sending the visibly ill server home, but that means that his entire section will be in need of a competent employee, and, considering that it’s a weekend dinner shift, the current wait staff can’t afford to take on any extra tables. The manager tries to decide who would be able to come in on such short notice to replace the worker and even calls a few of his servers: “I’m busy tonight”, “I’m working at my other job”, “I’m feeling sick”. Sure you are.

The server’s shift finally ends as he rings up the final table for the night. In pain from the illness, but somewhat cheerful that the day is over, he informs an available manager that he needs to leave quickly so he can to get started on his recovery as soon as possible. Although the server would be forgoing his typical end-of-shift duties with an early release, the manager agrees, and suggests that he go check the schedule for his next shift. The server has already removed his apron as he moves briskly toward the hostess’ desk—he takes a quick glance at the laminated schedule just beside the telephone, scans the calendar, and despairs as he discovers that he works the next day: opening shift.
This is what far too many employees have to experience whenever they fall ill with some kind of—often serious—disease. You can see that not only is it severely unpleasant for the employee, but customers, other employees, food, and productivity are all at risk whenever this person is required to appear at work despite his or her condition. It’s a business’ responsibility to enforce measures aimed at eliminating the possibility of disease spreading from employees to customers, especially at service establishments.


Since restaurant jobs are typically paid hourly, employees must forfeit a day’s wage if they intend on improving their condition. Many are proposing that even these types of jobs should offer sick leave to their employees; when employees can expect at least some kind of compensation (a server’s hourly wage is usually only around three dollars an hour since they receive tips) they will be less likely to attend work, therefore eliminating the possibility of spreading of their illness. Others are suggesting that managerial staffs be required to reform their policies regarding sick leave or sick days to accommodate the people who are truly ill. Understandably, employees could begin to take advantage of this new leniency on attendance, but employers need to decide whether indiscriminately requiring attendance is worth jeopardizing the health of the rest of their staff, and paying customers.

Cosmetic Surgery Since 1997

Here's a great infographic about how the 'face' of cosmetic surgery has evolved over the past 15 years. It compares some of the earliest trends of cosmetic surgery with the latest and demonstrates how the introduction of non-surgical procedures has impacted the field. All of the information is from the ASPS annual reports on cosmetic surgery.

Cosmetic Surgery Since 1997 | Infographics

Fat Shaming: A new way to prevent obesity?

As much as we would deny it and insist that we don’t participate, there tends to be a lot of, well, unkindness that gets directed toward the overweight population. This might be in the form of a stray comment at the water cooler, or a roll of the eyes when at a restaurant. Regardless, obese individuals are regularly ostracized by our behavior and the things that our culture produces. In many cases they can even be discriminated against because of their appearance.

Our culture glorifies beauty, and beauty, it tells us, comes in a very, very specific package: thin and fit. Therefore, when we see people who fall outside of these criteria for beauty we can regard them as anomalous, or altogether ugly; we feel that our cultural measurements of beauty entitle us to evaluate other people’s health and appearance. It also doesn’t help that loads of scientific research indicate that obesity puts people at risk for severe illness in the future. We can often feel that these little medical factoids justify our disgust with obese individuals, and we hide our insulting behavior under the guise of advancing healthier behavior. But despite how offensive or hurtful this stigmatizing can be, some people are beginning to think that it might be the only effective way to combat the obesity epidemic.

Recently, a researcher at a national bioethics institution published a paper evaluating an alternative method of obesity prevention. Daniel Callahan has proposed that we should begin to allow “edgier” anti-obesity initiatives that essentially involve shaming the individual into losing weight. Now, the approach isn’t (entirely) as extreme as it sounds – to put it into perspective, Callahan cited the remarkable success that similar marketing initiatives have had on the smoking community. By increasing awareness about the adverse health effects of smoking, we were able to stigmatize the act of smoking, thus making it significantly less attractive to its proponents. Callahan said that the “campaign to stigmatize smoking was a great success, turning what had been considered simply a bad habit into reprehensible behavior”.

Callahan’s observation about smoking is an astute one: if we see a very preventable activity causing widespread illness and death in our society, shouldn’t we respond to the harmful behavior according to how serious the issue is? In this case, the act of smoking was publicly eviscerated as unhealthy, unwise, and downright irresponsible – this stigmatization of smoking proved to be very effective. So should we use a similar method for the case of obesity? This is the question that has people divided on just how similar the two cases actually are.

With smoking, the cigarette was what was attacked. More specifically, the action that people typically perform with a cigarette was attacked, but nevertheless, the cigarette was the symbol that became publicly humiliated. If we evaluate the problem of obesity, pretty quickly we’ll recognize that there might not be any “symbol” that we can separate from the person to whom it pertains. Obesity is an anatomically inherent condition that is being stigmatized, not some secondary device that can be observed on its own. To attack obesity would necessarily mean attacking the person who it is attached to.

This raises questions about increased workforce discrimination, and whether worsening an already serious issue is really the solution to obesity. However, Callahan argues that there needs to be some sort of palpable social pressure to prevent obesity if we intend on decreasing its impact in the future. The best way to do this, Callahan suggests, would make people want to strongly avoid becoming obese through marketing and other public service initiatives. Since the fear of illness, immobility, or death don’t seem to decrease the growing obesity numbers, we need to do something that will prevent people from ever becoming obese in the first place, rather than trying to change the habits of those who already are.

Despite being an ethically dubious approach to the obesity crisis, Callahan’s suggestion is still extremely interesting, and seems as though it would be effective, but the concerns of his opponents are still just as valid. It’s difficult to decide if obesity is something that we should handle with tact, or with aggression. There are plenty of healthy, medically supervised options available when it comes to weight loss, but these opportunities aren't addressing the obesity problem effectively. We need to decide if the severity of the issue requires similarly severe methods of prevention.

Foot Fungus Laser Technology

Attribution: mickeysucks

Between 6% and 8% of the population suffers from Onychomycosis, otherwise known as foot fungus. Foot fungus typically results from your foot being exposed to a dark, most environment for long periods of time. This makes sense when you consider that most fungus in the wild is found exclusively on one side of a rock or tree, or in a dank cave that sunlight can't penetrate. Whenever your foot come in regular contact with a surface or environment like this, you risk the contraction of fungal infection.

Fungal infection typically occurs in older subjects, since there is less blood circulation to the extremities, and there has been more time for the fungal infection to develop. In fact, over 60% of people over 40 demonstrate some form of fungal involvement in their feet, as well as 80% of the population over 60. Concisely, most of us will experience foot fungus at some time in our lives.

New treatments are being introduced that intend on using laser technology to eradicate fungus from infected toenails. These cutting-edge lasers replicate the light waves emitted by the sun - which are known to inhibit fungal growth - and penetrate the deepest layers of the nail in an effort to destroy the fungus.

This article has a brief history of the lasers, as well as some more information about how the laser works and where you can find it.

Breast Cancer Awareness Online

It's probably safe to say that by now you have been fed up with your Facebook feed. You're probably not crazy about everything that you see, but you might just be too lazy (of feel too bad) to unsubscribe from someone else's posts. The truth is, that most of the stuff that you see on Facebook just doesn't mean anything.

Attribution: jonkpirateboy

Think about it - if you make plans with a friend on Facebook, you are probably going to confirm those plans with a phone call or a text message. Although Facebook is a 'social' media site, it is never a terminal channel for organizing your actual social life. But despite how unofficial and non-authoritative Facebook is, we can sometimes get caught up in the news-feed frivolity and contribute to the flow of nonsense.

This article talks about how Facebook fails as a successful way to endorse awareness about a serious issue: breast cancer. It talks about some little 'game' that has been circulating the social media space that aims to create awareness about the disease, but fails because of how we view information on Facebook. Originally intended to be a little activity to (somehow) educate people about breast cancer, the game simply falls victim to the problem of meaninglessness that affects everything that we put on our profile page.

The article goes on to remind readers that breast cancer is a serious reality, and that it not something that people should be treating as a 'game'.

What Your Diet Is Missing

Sometimes our desire to be fit and thin outweighs our desire to actually be healthy. We focus on the next year or so (or the upcoming summer) and focus all of our determination on the goal of losing weight. But sometimes a low-calorie diet can neglect vitamins and minerals that are vital to your body's everyday functions.

Here's a post that talks about four things that your diet might not feature enough of. It explains why your body needs more fiber, zinc, omega-3s and folate, and how you can work these things into your health regimen.

So make sure that your thinner lifestyle isn't depriving your body of things that can extend your health long into your later years because, let's face it, we're not getting any younger.

Attribution: AudunV

Justice is Only Skin Deep

It’s a common criticism that men are vain and superficial. Film, music, and television all perpetuate the illustration of the shallow bachelor who refuses to associate himself with a bachelorette for anything other than her physical appearance. Men are painted as these one-dimensional cretins of the social world whose atavistic urges prevent them from appreciating a woman for anything other than her looks. This kind of thing is said to happen everywhere from the schoolyard to the board room - the male population apparently prefers thinner women almost exclusively.

This has a lot of men crying ‘foul’ against their feminine counterparts. They claim that these caricatures of slobbering buffoons neglect to acknowledge the intellectuals, the poets, the philosophers – the gentlemen. They try to distance themselves from the stereotypical alpha-males around them, and claim to be a part of a vast fraternity of guys who champion chivalry instead of chauvinism. These nice-guys-finish-last types may even be believable…if studies about them didn’t always point in the opposite direction.

Not only is this just a preference, but there seems to be a deeply-ingrained tendency in the male psyche that naturally discredits heavier women. A recent study by Yale psychologists surveyed the propensity of both male and female jurors to evaluate someone’s innocence based on his or her appearance. The people conducting the study described a false case to the participants: check fraud. The participants were then presented with one of four images: a large man, a thin man, a large woman, and a thin woman. The participants would proceed to rate how guilty the defendant was – a judgment strictly based on the defendant’s physical appearance – using a five-point Likert scale.

Interestingly, the women who participated in the study showed no discernible bias in evaluating the defendants. Researchers found no direct connection between the defendant’s appearance and the degree to which the female participants deemed them guilty.

On the other hand, there was an abundance of evidence suggesting that the weight of the female defendants directly influenced the male participants’ decisions. Researchers observed an apparent proclivity for the men to deem the image of the larger female defendant as ‘guiltier’ than either of the men or the thin woman. Not to mention, slimmer participants would consistently label the obese female defendants as ‘repeat offenders’ and having ‘awareness’ of their crimes through the rating system. Needless to say, this micro-population demonstrated the largest selection bias of any group represented in the sample.

This could have serious implications for the legal process that is enacted in every courtroom of jurors. No doubt, personal bias always has some bearing on a juror’s decision, but this study could suggest that there is a serious corporate problem with how the male community delivers justice. A sample of 471 is, of course, not exhaustive, but the results are still striking. There could be other societal influences on the study. Maybe the sample was in a community where there is a very consistent perception of criminal personalities – possibly the likeness of the large female defendant just happened to fit the description of a large population of criminals in these men’s communities. 

Nevertheless, the study is still remarkable. If it is, in fact, consistent with the tendencies within the larger population of males, it reveals some pretty uncomfortable information about male psychology that confirms volumes of social criticisms.

I guess guys just can’t catch a break…

The article can be viewed here

Lance Armstrong Confesses

The news has finally emerged about Lance Armstrong's admission to using performance-enhancing substances during his time as a cyclist. Armstrong has been recognized as the beloved tour-de-force of the Tour de France for years, but the recent news concerning his dubious performance has his fans (some former) divided.

Many people are outraged that he has taken so long to come clean about the subject, saying that he could have come clean about the issue long ago, but wanted to wait until his success and career was behind him.

His more loyal proponents are insisting that his long history of work for LiveSTRONG - an organization devoted to helping the cancer community - far outweighs his decision to juice. These people say that the impact that his success has allowed him to make in the cancer community was worth his lapse in athletic honesty.

Armstrong has reportedly given an effusive apology to his staff at LiveSTRONG for all of the stress that speculation about his athletic past has brought upon the organization. Whether his apology is sincere, however, will be up to others to decide.

The story can be viewed here

Photo attribution: lapstrake

How to Get More Sleep

It's more important than you think

With the demand for our time and performance always on the rise, it’s far too easy to cut corners on our sleep schedule to free up some time for other, more (ostensibly) important activities. Many of us feel as though we can always fall back on our early morning coffee or other caffeinated drinks to pick up the slack when it comes to our energy levels, but that only makes it easier for us to deprive ourselves of the recharging, natural sleep that we need.

Droopy eyelids aren’t the only things caused by lack of sleep; an insufficient sleep regimen has been linked to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even type 2 Diabetes¹. A good night’s rest is what your body requires to carry out many of the tasks necessary in maintaining physical and mental welfare. Without allowing your body the time to do these things, you are preventing it from protecting you from future health concerns.

Additionally, stress can have a severely negative effect on your sleep cycle. Pressure or frustration releases glucose into the bloodstream which, in turn, gives the body energy. This energy keeps you awake, leading to insomnia, which doctors think can allow your body to release even more stress hormones. So not only does stress keep you from sleeping properly, but poor sleep increases the stress your body is under; lack of sleep can result in an unending cycle of restlessness.

Because sleep is such an integral part of your success, here are a few ways that you can ensure that you and your entire family are getting the sleep necessary to get through the day-to-day. Keep in mind, seven to nine hours of sleep each night is what is clinically recommended for an adult to remain healthy, so this is how you can fit that extra sleep time into your schedule for a healthier more well-rested future.

Follow a regular schedule

Establishing a predictable circadian rhythm (the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle) is one of the most effective ways that you can get your sleeping back on track. It takes motivation, since you will essentially be forcing yourself to designate certain parts of your day to sleep, but in the long run it can totally reschedule your body’s internal clock.

The first step in doing this is to set regular bedtimes and wake times for every day. But rather than trying to quit your nocturnal habits cold-turkey, you can work your way gradually into this habit by going to bed just 15 minutes earlier than usual every night. This way, it’ll only be just over a week before you are comfortably going to bed two hours before your original late-night (early morning?) bedtime. Likewise, you’ll also want to make sure that your wake patterns follow accordingly. Try to get your body accustomed to getting the same amount of sleep every night, so adjust your wake patterns to those of your gradually earlier bedtime schedule.

Also, following a regular schedule means that you ensure that your body receives a certain amount of sleep every day, no matter what. Let’s say that eight hours of sleep is enough for you to feel refreshed and energetic in the morning - bedtime at eleven, and you wake up at seven – but you need to stay up until midnight working on a work project one evening. In order to maintain your circadian rhythm, you’ll want to make sure that you make up that lost hour of sleep sometime the next day with a nap, but at a time that won’t disrupt your scheduled bedtime later that night.

Exercise

I know this probably isn’t the most popular way to regain some sleep, but regular exercise might be one of the best ways to keep you from tossing and turning throughout the night. Not only is exercise the absolute best way to manage your weight, it also makes your body more likely to be prepared for sleep once you actually get into bed.

The obvious contribution exercise has to your sleep cycle is the exhaustion that comes from activity, but exercise also has two other great ways to help you sleep: reinforcing your circadian rhythm and reducing stress. If you were to schedule regular exercise at the beginning of your morning, your body would begin to associate the activity with sunlight; your body starts to program itself to respond to the changes in light, and prevents you from sleeping in too late. Also, as mentioned before, the amount of stress you have impacts your sleep in a big way. Since exercise is a wonderful way of reducing stress (and can really just put you in a better mood) it can’t be neglected as a way of getting you to bed on time.

No TV or reading in bed

Even though many of us enjoy the sound or white noise associated with watching TV, it’s a risky bedtime ritual if you intend in getting good sleep consistently. Although you might think that boring programs and late-night infomercials will help lull you to dreamland, Television as a visual stimulus will often excite your mind rather than turn it off. This goes double for our beloved portable devices like phones and tablets, since not only do the illuminated screens keep our minds active, our access to interesting material makes it likely that we’ll accidentally happen upon an interesting link, which will probably lead to another one, which will probably lead to another one…

Reading is also typically assumed to be a good way to fall asleep, and while it might have been a sure-fire method in your junior history class, it doesn’t work as well to cure legitimate insomnia. Again, any kind of engaging material is going to excite your mind, and the kind of attentive thinking that comes from reading a good book is the very thing that keeps you from sleeping soundly through the night.

Be mindful of what you eat

Your before-bed diet can have a lot to do with why you may be unable to fall asleep at night. Many people are liable to mindlessly munch right before bed, and introducing some new material into your system may affect your nighttime cycle adversely.

Mainly, you need to stay away from anything that has a detectable amount of caffeine in it. Coffee and soda are the most obvious culprits when it comes to robbing you of sleep, but chocolate is another way that caffeine can weasel its way into your system before you call it a night. And though they don’t have caffeine, things like bacon and cheese contain an amino acid called tyramine, which scientists say stimulates the brain and, therefore, keeps you awake. I suppose the rule of thumb should be if it’s something that you typically eat in the morning, you’ll want to avoid snacking on it at night.

You’re not the only one who is losing sleep

Now that you’ve taken care of your sleep issue it’s important to recognize that sleep deprivation among children is also a very serious issue. We tend to think that natural youthful energy will be enough to get our little ones through the day, but the truth is that a lack of sleep that can mitigate their physical and psychological performance throughout the day. In fact, a study conducted in Montreal last year tested students under both an extended and shortened sleep schedule. The study concluded that the students who were allowed approximately 30 more minutes of sleep demonstrated discernible improvements in activity, as well as a decrease in sleepiness. The other group of students, who were allowed about an hour less of sleep, showed an observable deterioration in these same areas.

Getting kids to sleep more

The methods of ensuring that children maintain a regular sleep cycle are similar to those that should be exhibited by adults. Avoiding energizing food/beverages and reducing the use of electronic stimuli around bedtime are a must. But enforcing a “quite time” at night ensures that they won’t be tempted to interact with their siblings instead of getting their much-needed sleep. However, as a parent, it is imperative that you strictly adhere to these practices because, as you probably already know, no kid ever wants to go to bed.

Other steps

Sometimes behavioral modification isn’t enough for you to correct an erratic (or nonexistent) sleep cycle. No matter how much you exercise, what you eat, or when you get into bed you still can’t seem to get the rest necessary to function properly the next day. This is when you may want to consult your physician about potential methods of treatment; issues like sleep apnea can be huge inhibitors to healthy sleep, and your doctor can help you diagnose these problems and evaluate some solutions that can help you regain a good, natural night’s sleep.

The Medical Center of Plano: Health Matters, Winter 2013 ¹