Reminded of this last night by a friend who works in a hotel and had a very similar experience to one I had back when I worked in a hotel restaurant three years ago.
I was covering breakfast, which was a buffet. One of the foodstuffs we provided was bowls of different cereal, one of muesli, one of cornflakes, rice crispies etc. I was refilling the hamper of assorted jams and marmalade when I saw an oldish man use the serving spoon to take a bite of the muesli, chewed it a few times, made a face, and then REPLACED the spoon in the bowl, complete with a whole host of old man germs.
I'd only been there a week and rather than confronting him myself, collared the manager. He asked the man to explain himself, whose answer was that he'd wanted to try it before committing himself to a whole bowl. Why he didn't use one of the hundreds of cereal spoons laid a foot to his left, god knows. Then he could have taken it with him and not risked spreading the plague. End result? Several pounds of muesli in the bin, and because we weren't expecting a delivery until the afternoon, two hours of breakfast duty having to tell irate guests that they would have to have cornflakes instead.
I was covering breakfast, which was a buffet. One of the foodstuffs we provided was bowls of different cereal, one of muesli, one of cornflakes, rice crispies etc. I was refilling the hamper of assorted jams and marmalade when I saw an oldish man use the serving spoon to take a bite of the muesli, chewed it a few times, made a face, and then REPLACED the spoon in the bowl, complete with a whole host of old man germs.
I'd only been there a week and rather than confronting him myself, collared the manager. He asked the man to explain himself, whose answer was that he'd wanted to try it before committing himself to a whole bowl. Why he didn't use one of the hundreds of cereal spoons laid a foot to his left, god knows. Then he could have taken it with him and not risked spreading the plague. End result? Several pounds of muesli in the bin, and because we weren't expecting a delivery until the afternoon, two hours of breakfast duty having to tell irate guests that they would have to have cornflakes instead.
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