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