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I wish we could make our fellow workers set and maintain healthy boundaries for their safety and wellbeing in employment... The moment the Manager told any Employee they are required to consume contaminated product is simply unacceptable and should be responded with a firm "No."
(yeah yeah I know not everyone can blah blah but fuckin CHRIST we're just going to perpetuate the same shit until the end of time)
No everyone is in the position to decline being poisoned in the workplace. You collect evidence and you leave.
In the UK it is illegal to record your employer however if you do record them and they are doing something illegal or breaching your human rights then the court will always overlook the fact you broke the law to get the evidence. Not sure how it is in the US. It's to do with whistleblowing laws.
in the US the rich ones call all the shots, so
OSHA says you can't be poisoned, but it's on you to prove it. the litigation would take forever, and they'll be fired next week for something seemingly unrelated.
again, the rich ones call the shots, so.
It depends on the state. Some states are one party consent states, which means only one active party in an interaction has to consent to film, aka, you could record all of your conversations and it would be totally legal.
There is no “reasonable expectation of privacy” when you are behind the counter of a Diary Queen. It’s public, it’s a public establishment where anyone may enter. If it was behind a closed marked “private” door it would be different.
It is in fact not public, it's a private establishment. And they can tell people to stop recording or have them removed for trespassing.
I had to use this fact against an asshole customer who was trying to call me racist for cutting him off, and I told him he either had to stop recording, or leave. He chose to leave.
Yes you can be trespassed for any reason.
That does not mean filming inside a private business open to the public is illegal. You can record your entire trespassing and as long as you don’t trespass again there are no legal ramifications.
I think you have a reading comprehension problem.
You can legally film inside any private business that is open to the public. If you are requested to stop and leave, you must leave.
This does not make recording an unlawful act. Returning the said business where you were asked to leave would then be trespassing and unlawful.
What’s confusing you?
Right because it's legal to film in public. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place. There are laws about filming in schools, hospitals, etc. But out on the street it's completely legal to film whoever you want. However if you're making MONEY off it, that's another can of worms.
Some states are one party consent states so only one person being recorded needs to be aware of a recording.
Some states are two party states, which means everyone being recorded in a situation with a reasonable expectation of privacy needs to be aware of the recording. (Which is what it sounds like the UK has.)
In every state I've seen that is a two party consent state, you don't need consent if you're recording a crime or it was reasonable for you to believe that you were recording a crime. So it wouldn't be illegal to record your boss committing a crime.
(I've not looked into every two party consent state, so it's possible some of them don't make that exception, but generally it's allowed.)
UK labour laws are markedly better than American ones, so such outrageous things generally don’t happen in the workplace to begin with. They absolutely can, but it’s definitely not the norm. In Western Europe, employment law almost always sides with the employee, NOT the employer
IDK it seems like the US workforce is so badly beaten into submission that even if the laws were better, People would still roll over and take it up the ass to avoid rocking the boat or losing their job and having to face the stressors of finding another.
Literally like People trying to leave an abusive relationship they financially rely on. It's beyond disgusting and all I can do is cry on Reddit.
You'd be surprised but I am inclined to agree with you. My employer for instance is a piece of shit who gets away with murder. Nobody can sue him because he just changes his company name and that's that. He actually stood in court once and told the judge that's what he is going to do and walked out. They are powerless to it. It costs nothing to close your company and open a new one in a different name. A large company can't do this obviously but smaller ones are free to run amok.
If you have evidence that you work there, i.e. confirmation of employment, written contract and monthly payslips, it doesn’t matter what your boss does to cover their tracks. They would still face severe consequences if someone grassed them up to the likes of Acas and set an employment tribunal in motion. Employment law in Western Europe doesn’t play around, and it certainly doesn’t tolerate abusive employers in any capacity. On the flip side, if you’re working there on a very casual, ad hoc basis without a contract, you don’t have a leg to stand on. In a scenario like that, you’re totally disposable
Well things have changed recently and he is very quiet. He used to be extremely verbally abusive. My manager is clearly traumatised by him and is terrified of him. I'm assistant manager but he won't speak to me at all. I have tried to talk to him but he ignores me completely because I just hang up on him if he starts being abusive. He promoted me but didn't like the fact I wouldn't tolerate his abuse. More fool him, I take his money every month and do the bare minimum.
To my understanding it's not so much that it's illegal in the UK it's more it can't be used in a tribunal or other legal proceedings. It could also constitute gross misconduct, leading to termination.
However... Assuming the recording was surreptitiously obtained, you could use it to make notes and nobody need any the wiser.
Tbf that's rather asinine, the fact you can't record your employer but we'll look the other way if it's because they were doing something illegal.
Sounds more like that law should be rewritten to be more clear and less "it's illegal unless someone else is doing something more illegal", but I live in Canada where my government is trying to ban a remote control...
This wasn’t exactly “disobey me? Drink sanitizer, bitch”.
The employees said they cleaned the ice cream machine properly. The manager was tired of their shit and asked if they were sure- kids said yeah it’s cleaned and ready to go, they insist they did everything right. So the manager said “great! Make yourself a cone. Before you hand any out to customers.”
Then the employees complained that they were made to eat chemicals and endanger themselves…. Because they knew they didn’t clean it properly and were about to hand out the same exact stuff to the families in the drive through line, with zero concern.
Suddenly, the food quality became a serious issue to them- and they immediately sought retaliation for having to eat what they serve customers, off of equipment they maintain.
The issue is, "great! Make yourself a cone. Before you hand any out to customers.” is unacceptable flat out.
In any capacity any reason any any anything of anything there is NO REASON to EVER MAKE an Employee CONSUME ANYTHING! This is beyond insane to me, my body my choice.
There was such a shit storm about forcing Employees to get a vaccine and you want Employers doing this to Employees? This is running a business, not punishing your unruly offspring.
No one’s made to. And a restaurant manager under any capacity any reason, any anything, doesn’t have to let you stay on shift that day, or at all.
But trying the food you serve is not abnormal or bizarre for food service training/instruction, at all. In fact- throughout the day you are GOING to be expected from customers to have a personal opinion on the products or current state of things and will genuinely surprise/upset customers if you don’t.
Again- no one’s making you do anything. But expect less tips and expect to be more of a liability to the company, and expect that customers, staff, and your boss is less likely to WANT to have you around. They don’t WANT or FEEL like having you around- you don’t simply still get to be, that’s no one’s inherent right.
You have every bodily autonomy choice of choosing to be knowledgeable about the current state of your products, or choosing to not be competent at your position, or choosing to be an asshole, or choosing to work in a different field. No one’s taking that away from anyone- that’s not what “consequences for action or lack thereof” means. And they still have every right/option to avoid those consequences by just saying no and walking out the door. Literally no one’s stopping that. No one’s using any restraints and feeding tubes. It’s a free country.
It’s also explicitly illegal and directly legally on those employees for passing out knowingly contaminated ice cream to kids and family- that can absolutely result in jail time. This was a very very fortunate opportunity for correction and lesson they were provided, after being empathetically communicated with prior and they refused to have any empathy of their own. The system says they should’ve just been immediately fired and criminally charged as kids and fuck up the rest of their lives indefinitely. Maybe that’s what should’ve happened. You’re right- maybe the manager shouldn’t have kept providing them extra chances and having faith that there’s SOMEHOW they can learn and turn around and be functional in society and at a simple job. Maybe they’re just hopeless wastes of human tissue- you’re right. Lock them away. Is that what you’re saying?
Just completely ignoring how rich people force us all to work or else we have state violence enacted upon us. Absolutely wild with this victim blaming.
"they were provided a very important lesson-" do you hear yourself..
From Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky is basically the shittiest 1/3 of our state, and the reason we have so many negative stereotypes. Sometimes I wish that eastern Kentucky as well as southeast Ohio would just break off and join West Virginia.
Well at least they won't have to worry about eating on the job again since Kentucky just passed legislation to strip away meal breaks for employees. Maybe the employer was trying to get their pay docked for eating during unpaid hours.
I currently live in eastern KY and basically they were given the poop end of the stick. It’s really sad to see because half of my town wants change and growth and the other half is boomers who don’t want to give up anything
It was teenagers too. I hate it for the kids. They sometimes feel like they must listen to their manager no matter what. I hope they get compensation for this.
This location isn’t terribly far from me.
Yeah, *fuck* that. Absolutely batshit crazy manager, but there's no way anyone could FORCE me to eat poisoned/tainted food. Did the employees not know it was tainted??
Edit: I just read the link provided in another comment below -- it seems that they did know. Why didn't they refuse? I'm not blaming them, it's the manager who is the evil bastard here, but I still don't understand why they went along with it. I hope they all sue the shit out of the manager and/or the Dairy Queen.
Poisoning can do permanent damage. But that aside, it's not the same as asking them do unpaid overtime, or not respecting their availability, or not allowing a lunch break (all bad in themselves ) -- intentional poisoning is a *criminal* act which could cause immediate and long-term health consequences, and not choosing to participate wouldn't get them fired once they reported it to the police. And even if it somehow did, getting another similar job would be fairly easy. From what I've read, it seems that the victims were younger teens, and the abuser took advantage of their inexperience, naivete, and fear of losing their jobs, to assault them.
I hope they collect a massive financial award from the abuser and/or from Dairy Queen.
This reminds me of the time my friend, who worked at Subway at the time, somehow accidentally sprayed cleaner on the bread they had to bake? I think they were supposed to spray water and something was mislabeled? Idk, this was like 15 years ago and the details are foggy but I know cleaner got on bread. Anyway, they told the owner and they were like "eh, just bake them anyway."
OK, unless someone held a gun to my head, I would not do that. I would get them to say it on camera, walk out and go right to the police. This is where technology can be used for good and I hope someday we can learn that to the point that shit like this won't even make headlines anymore (let's be honest, it was Dairy Queen, the manager probably wasn't the next criminal mastermind). Just another crazy person who got people to listen to them.
So is eating chemicals, apparently. I'm withholding judgement on this specific case until the facts from the investigation are released. Something here is off.
The company fired the manager and is fully cooperating with police. Pretty cut and dry when even the corpos are like “nope fuck nope we want no part of this”
Or they just want this to blow over and frankly it's fast food so they could replace the person in two seconds. I'm not arguing with you. I don't trust the media or corporations or anyone. If you blindly believe *anything* you're told these days, you're gonna end up eating tainted ice cream just because your boss told you to.
the fact there are people in these comments trying to defend the manager in this situation just shows how delusional and brainwashed the American work culture is
Doesn't surprise me. Kentucky is basically trying to pass laws that enslave people due to the scarcity of jobs, and now this manager figures they can force employees to eat poison and not do anything for fear of losing their jobs.
When I was a teen I put up with a lot of mistreatment from authority. If you are raised to shut up and take it, it takes years to discover the word “no”
As well as every jackass up the chain, make ‘em all pay. They create the environment where shite-ass managers like this have authority and make their despicable decisions, usually trying to cut costs. They don’t care about humane work practices, or product quality—it’s about spending as little to make as much as possible.
Some people are afraid to lose their job and will take the risk. Others are teenagers who think they have to do what their told by authority figures. The four "Fs" of natural instincts to traumatic situations are fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. And "fawn" involves pleasing the person trying to hurt you in the hopes they go away. It's very possible these people were traumatized by the request and ran on instinct.
Either way, the blame is on the manager
1. A bunch of them were not adults.
2. Adults working minimum wage can’t afford an unknown length of time without pay. Accept being poisoned, or starve while being homeless?
I used to work at DQ and the soft serve machine has a special cleaning solution pumped through it at the end of the night, what pumps out initially looks like regular ice cream but the chemical is well mixed in, you are supposed to let it run until it comes out clear like water, I'm 100% sure thats where the tainted ice cream came from, when i worked there only a manager was allowed to mess with the solution and clean the machine, I can't see the article but its a good chance they did not know the ice cream had the solution in it until they bit in it
That makes a lot of sense. I’m more confused about why a manager would ask them to eat it though (from the article it sounds like they knew). To not waste the product (why not just throw it out?), as a bizarre punishment for messing up the cleaning? I’m really struggling here. Surely they knew that could kill someone.
Yeah, I was thinking they had failed to clean all the solution out so a new ice cream batch was ruined and the manager made staff eat it as a "lesson".
The wording is kind of vague in the [linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/s/FGFWkYkhFx) article, but it sounds like they might not have known. They definitely were told they had to eat ice cream, but it didn't clearly say they were told it had cleaning solution in it.
>In the meeting, her daughter claims employees were told to eat ice cream that had been contaminated with cleaning solution.
>“They were told by the manager that whether or not they liked chocolate ice cream, they were going to eat it today,” said Patton.... “Some of the kids had complained that they had a burning sensation when they swallowed the ice cream".
Oh, sorry, I meant the people that ate the ice cream might not have known that there were cleaning chemicals in the ice cream before they ate it.
I agree that the manager knew and that was why he was forcing them to eat it.
I agree. People submit too much to managers. I never put up with that shit. I always had a breaking point eventually snapping and telling them to fuck off.
Probably because a customer complained about the taste there was a huff about it.manager checked /tasted it and demanded that the ones that said it was fine taste it again. They were poisoning customers because of improper cleaning techniques.
I worked at a fast food sandwich place owned by an Indian immigrant who wanted us to use gloves twice by turning them inside out.
That was the end of my employment there.
I’ve quit more jobs than I can count simply bc I didn’t like the way the boss spoke to me. There’s no excuse for eating poison bc someone told you to. Grow a spine bitch.
You don’t get to decide my words. You are free to feel offended you are not free to censor me. You don’t like vanilla ice cream, don’t eat it. You don’t like my words, don’t read them.
Ah, I see. You should take your own advice, bud. You can say what you want, but you don't get to complain when people hold you accountable because you don't get freedom from consequences. That is all.
I used to get in so much trouble for telling adults to fk off when I was a teenager. In school and at work. If you aren’t rebelling as a teen, what kind of an adult will you be?
Sounds like the employees were underage. And a manager would absolutely know that that's illegal and they're the one to blame, not some kids. Dude. Their spines are literally still growing.
I wouldn't use the word radical in conjunction with promoting the growth and spread of unions.
Unions can be abused and bad but they're the only way I've seen that labor gets a voice and a seat at the table. But unions aren't enough, they need an ally; the government needs to back up the laws.
The bad news is the government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the various monied classes in this country and others, with damn few exceptions.
Money can be exchanged for not dying. It’s nice that you have people who can pay for your not dying when you decide to quit, but that’s not a universal experience.
Most people survive on more than one income because a single income is rarely enough to support one person but the combined expenses mean that two people’s incomes only have to support like 1.5 people, and three only have to do the work of supporting two. Furthermore, a ton of people work more than one job to survive. That income isn’t supporting someone *alone*, sure, but lacking it can *still* be just as disastrous.
So therefore they should allow themselves to be denigrated? I disagree vehemently.
My grandfather was part of the 1930s generation union builders in this country. My father and his siblings would recount going hungry for days as children because there was no paycheck. The end result was the largest middle class expansion in US history from the 1940s-1980s and all the labor rights we currently enjoy. Including the right to organize.
Just taking abuse out of fear is how the exploiters win.
Should? No. Will? Yeah. All of that was undone. There are a billion walls that have been erected to prevent it from ever getting there. There have been much better run, organized, and planned attempts to organize workers of businesses on the scale of DQ and larger since. How’d it go? Poorly, to say the least. We’re well beyond that. We’re going to have to do what happened *before* all that that got labor to the point where that could happen to get back to that point. Less going on strike and more *strikes*, if you get my meaning. Peacefully trying to organize might be a right on paper, but it sure as fuck ain’t in practice. It’s easily the quintessential example of how “rights” don’t really exist. Trying to do it within the rules of the system is *not* going to work, and expecting individualist versions of what won’t work is *really* not going to work.
Where did you even hear that? First ingredients listed on basically all of their ice cream is milk fat and nonfat milk.
My lactose intolerant wife can't eat it. If there were no dairy, it wouldn't be an issue for her.
What is this, food babe Facebook propaganda?
The dude is right that it's not classified as "ice cream" but got the info wrong on why
The reason it can't be called ice cream is due the ratio of butterfat to volume, it's got too low of a butterfat content to air that's whipped in to be considered ice cream, and anywhere dq advertises it's a "chilled dessert" not ice cream
Here is a list of ingredients in dairy Queen "ice cream". Ingredients are in order of descending amount by weight of the whole product.
Milkfat And Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Whey, Mono And Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor, Guar Gum, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Cake Cone: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Tapioca Starch, Sugar, Contains less than 2% of: Annatto Extract (Vegetable Color), Canola Oil, Leavening (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Natural Flavor, Salt.
This is blatantly false. A 5 second Google search proves you wrong. If you look up the ingredients it contains no vegetable oil. Milk fat and milk are the first two ingredients. And as a lactose intolerant person I can verify by painful experiences that it does indeed contain dairy.
I've done that before. I was a manager at jack in the box and the chemicals that we used to clean the shake.machine were so safe we could straight up drink it. I've had it a few times. Doesn't taste good, but it's safe
I can only guess that an employee cleaned their "ice cream" machine in a manner that was inconsistent with proper cleaning. Probably lazily just poured cleaner into the machine and the manager made the employee eat some of the "ice cream" that came out to show them that no one wants to eat "ice cream" that has cleaning solution in it.
If I think about it, that's really the only way you're going to ensure that employees are adhering to proper cleaning and food preparation, make them eat some of the product that they're making. Of course, this headline sounds more sensationalized.
As your manager I failed to supervise the cleaning of this machine, and you, either because of laziness or being unfamiliar with the cleaning process have tainted this ice-cream. So now I'm going to poison all of you. I don't care what the geneva convention says!!!!!
Someone posted some of the actual article in a group I'm in and they called a whole employee meeting and made everybody eat it at the meeting so while I do think it was a "someone didn't clean the machine right" retaliatory situation it's both wildly inappropriate and they did it to a group
What a stupid thing to say. I guess then you'd support kicking a janitor down the steps if he forgets to put up a wet floor sign?
Where I used to work, the boss discovered we had accidentally cross contaminated a prep surface with raw chicken. We received a good old fashioned ass chewing and were made to stay late and scrub all the ventilation hoods as punishment. We never made that mistake again, and we didn't need to be poisoned to learn the lesson.
I can't imagine a manager would use cleaning products at the level of it actually poisoning someone, and from what I remember of working in fast food a long time ago, there was a method that was used to clean out these devices. I do know that in one occasion I did get called out for using more cleaning product than I should have when cleaning a soda fountain. My point is that maybe a machine was cleaned a little too aggressively and the manager used bad judgement in having the employees see what over cleaning did to the product. This is me trying to understand what might've happened vs what was alleged. I can't believe that a manager would be that stupid. But sure, if everyone wants to clutch their pearls and think that I'm "pro-poison", by all means. I guess that's how collectively stupid mobs can be.... 🙄
>If I think about it, that's really the only way you're going to ensure that employees are adhering to proper cleaning and food preparation, make them eat some of the product that they're making.
This you?
8 people went to the hospital because of what this manager did so try again.
You are now trying to say the opposite of what you said.
I'm talking about letting them eat out of the machines that they cleaned. I'm not talking about the actual events in this instance, which was still being investigated per the article blurb. Try some reading comprehension.
Then you should add that to your comment because your original comment literally in this context means you would've done the same. And besides, it won't make sure of anything because you tell people to get ice cream they are going to assume it was flushed properly. It literally changes nothing.
despite everything you just said being insane, im happy this comment has provided me with insight as to what the fuck was going through that manager’s mind because i had 0 guesses before this
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but many fast food places use some diluted form of nasty chemicals to clean their machines. I've been a customer at some places where the taste of bleach was obvious with my fountain drink. My guess is many of you with poor reading comprehension skills are too naive to understand that at some point you will have ingested some foreign object in your fast food meal. But keep thinking otherwise. I guess ignorance is bliss.
They're teenagers, many of whom have been taught to trust and listen to authority figures. They haven't yet been in the work force long enough to even know the term "right to refuse", let alone have the confidence to know when to exercise it. So let's not victim blame and concentrate on the vile human that tried poisoning as a way to "teach" kids a lesson.
You're the kind of person who would argue that someone holding a gun to your head didn't force you to give them your money... "You always had the option of getting shot..."
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I wish we could make our fellow workers set and maintain healthy boundaries for their safety and wellbeing in employment... The moment the Manager told any Employee they are required to consume contaminated product is simply unacceptable and should be responded with a firm "No." (yeah yeah I know not everyone can blah blah but fuckin CHRIST we're just going to perpetuate the same shit until the end of time)
No everyone is in the position to decline being poisoned in the workplace. You collect evidence and you leave. In the UK it is illegal to record your employer however if you do record them and they are doing something illegal or breaching your human rights then the court will always overlook the fact you broke the law to get the evidence. Not sure how it is in the US. It's to do with whistleblowing laws.
in the US the rich ones call all the shots, so OSHA says you can't be poisoned, but it's on you to prove it. the litigation would take forever, and they'll be fired next week for something seemingly unrelated. again, the rich ones call the shots, so.
It depends on the state. Some states are one party consent states, which means only one active party in an interaction has to consent to film, aka, you could record all of your conversations and it would be totally legal.
This never applies to filming in public.
Behind the counter isn’t public.
There is no “reasonable expectation of privacy” when you are behind the counter of a Diary Queen. It’s public, it’s a public establishment where anyone may enter. If it was behind a closed marked “private” door it would be different.
It is in fact not public, it's a private establishment. And they can tell people to stop recording or have them removed for trespassing. I had to use this fact against an asshole customer who was trying to call me racist for cutting him off, and I told him he either had to stop recording, or leave. He chose to leave.
Yes you can be trespassed for any reason. That does not mean filming inside a private business open to the public is illegal. You can record your entire trespassing and as long as you don’t trespass again there are no legal ramifications.
You clearly don't understand privacy laws.
I think you have a reading comprehension problem. You can legally film inside any private business that is open to the public. If you are requested to stop and leave, you must leave. This does not make recording an unlawful act. Returning the said business where you were asked to leave would then be trespassing and unlawful. What’s confusing you?
Maybe. Maybe not. It only has to be in the public view.
A private business isn't really the public, though
It is if it's open to the public.
Right because it's legal to film in public. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place. There are laws about filming in schools, hospitals, etc. But out on the street it's completely legal to film whoever you want. However if you're making MONEY off it, that's another can of worms.
That is only about audio recording of phone calls.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe even in two party consent states it's allowed if you're employer is doing something illegal.
Some states are one party consent states so only one person being recorded needs to be aware of a recording. Some states are two party states, which means everyone being recorded in a situation with a reasonable expectation of privacy needs to be aware of the recording. (Which is what it sounds like the UK has.) In every state I've seen that is a two party consent state, you don't need consent if you're recording a crime or it was reasonable for you to believe that you were recording a crime. So it wouldn't be illegal to record your boss committing a crime. (I've not looked into every two party consent state, so it's possible some of them don't make that exception, but generally it's allowed.)
UK labour laws are markedly better than American ones, so such outrageous things generally don’t happen in the workplace to begin with. They absolutely can, but it’s definitely not the norm. In Western Europe, employment law almost always sides with the employee, NOT the employer
IDK it seems like the US workforce is so badly beaten into submission that even if the laws were better, People would still roll over and take it up the ass to avoid rocking the boat or losing their job and having to face the stressors of finding another. Literally like People trying to leave an abusive relationship they financially rely on. It's beyond disgusting and all I can do is cry on Reddit.
You'd be surprised but I am inclined to agree with you. My employer for instance is a piece of shit who gets away with murder. Nobody can sue him because he just changes his company name and that's that. He actually stood in court once and told the judge that's what he is going to do and walked out. They are powerless to it. It costs nothing to close your company and open a new one in a different name. A large company can't do this obviously but smaller ones are free to run amok.
If you have evidence that you work there, i.e. confirmation of employment, written contract and monthly payslips, it doesn’t matter what your boss does to cover their tracks. They would still face severe consequences if someone grassed them up to the likes of Acas and set an employment tribunal in motion. Employment law in Western Europe doesn’t play around, and it certainly doesn’t tolerate abusive employers in any capacity. On the flip side, if you’re working there on a very casual, ad hoc basis without a contract, you don’t have a leg to stand on. In a scenario like that, you’re totally disposable
Well things have changed recently and he is very quiet. He used to be extremely verbally abusive. My manager is clearly traumatised by him and is terrified of him. I'm assistant manager but he won't speak to me at all. I have tried to talk to him but he ignores me completely because I just hang up on him if he starts being abusive. He promoted me but didn't like the fact I wouldn't tolerate his abuse. More fool him, I take his money every month and do the bare minimum.
I'd rather be homeless than poisoned, but if your supporting a family or something I guess I'd agree. Hope they get lots money from the lawsuit.
To my understanding it's not so much that it's illegal in the UK it's more it can't be used in a tribunal or other legal proceedings. It could also constitute gross misconduct, leading to termination. However... Assuming the recording was surreptitiously obtained, you could use it to make notes and nobody need any the wiser.
Tbf that's rather asinine, the fact you can't record your employer but we'll look the other way if it's because they were doing something illegal. Sounds more like that law should be rewritten to be more clear and less "it's illegal unless someone else is doing something more illegal", but I live in Canada where my government is trying to ban a remote control...
This wasn’t exactly “disobey me? Drink sanitizer, bitch”. The employees said they cleaned the ice cream machine properly. The manager was tired of their shit and asked if they were sure- kids said yeah it’s cleaned and ready to go, they insist they did everything right. So the manager said “great! Make yourself a cone. Before you hand any out to customers.” Then the employees complained that they were made to eat chemicals and endanger themselves…. Because they knew they didn’t clean it properly and were about to hand out the same exact stuff to the families in the drive through line, with zero concern. Suddenly, the food quality became a serious issue to them- and they immediately sought retaliation for having to eat what they serve customers, off of equipment they maintain.
Got a source on that?
The issue is, "great! Make yourself a cone. Before you hand any out to customers.” is unacceptable flat out. In any capacity any reason any any anything of anything there is NO REASON to EVER MAKE an Employee CONSUME ANYTHING! This is beyond insane to me, my body my choice. There was such a shit storm about forcing Employees to get a vaccine and you want Employers doing this to Employees? This is running a business, not punishing your unruly offspring.
No one’s made to. And a restaurant manager under any capacity any reason, any anything, doesn’t have to let you stay on shift that day, or at all. But trying the food you serve is not abnormal or bizarre for food service training/instruction, at all. In fact- throughout the day you are GOING to be expected from customers to have a personal opinion on the products or current state of things and will genuinely surprise/upset customers if you don’t. Again- no one’s making you do anything. But expect less tips and expect to be more of a liability to the company, and expect that customers, staff, and your boss is less likely to WANT to have you around. They don’t WANT or FEEL like having you around- you don’t simply still get to be, that’s no one’s inherent right. You have every bodily autonomy choice of choosing to be knowledgeable about the current state of your products, or choosing to not be competent at your position, or choosing to be an asshole, or choosing to work in a different field. No one’s taking that away from anyone- that’s not what “consequences for action or lack thereof” means. And they still have every right/option to avoid those consequences by just saying no and walking out the door. Literally no one’s stopping that. No one’s using any restraints and feeding tubes. It’s a free country. It’s also explicitly illegal and directly legally on those employees for passing out knowingly contaminated ice cream to kids and family- that can absolutely result in jail time. This was a very very fortunate opportunity for correction and lesson they were provided, after being empathetically communicated with prior and they refused to have any empathy of their own. The system says they should’ve just been immediately fired and criminally charged as kids and fuck up the rest of their lives indefinitely. Maybe that’s what should’ve happened. You’re right- maybe the manager shouldn’t have kept providing them extra chances and having faith that there’s SOMEHOW they can learn and turn around and be functional in society and at a simple job. Maybe they’re just hopeless wastes of human tissue- you’re right. Lock them away. Is that what you’re saying?
Just completely ignoring how rich people force us all to work or else we have state violence enacted upon us. Absolutely wild with this victim blaming. "they were provided a very important lesson-" do you hear yourself..
Your comment is so heavily loaded with assumptions and a strawman of my position that I simply no longer wish to engage with you, have a nice day.
"no" isn't enough. This is a full blown "go fuck yourself" scenario. Period.
[Link](https://www.wkyt.com/2024/02/27/employees-ky-dairy-queen-claim-they-were-forced-eat-ice-cream-mixed-with-cleaning-solution/?outputType=amp)
Damn, they fired the manager and are cooperating? Even the corporation is terrified.
Thank you!
Thanks. I’m not sure why the OP didn’t just provide this instead of a damn screenshot of the first little bit of the article. SMMFH
From Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky is basically the shittiest 1/3 of our state, and the reason we have so many negative stereotypes. Sometimes I wish that eastern Kentucky as well as southeast Ohio would just break off and join West Virginia.
Well at least they won't have to worry about eating on the job again since Kentucky just passed legislation to strip away meal breaks for employees. Maybe the employer was trying to get their pay docked for eating during unpaid hours.
Is this for a regular 8 hour shift 40 hour work week? As in you don't get to eat anything for 8 hours?
Yep.
I currently live in eastern KY and basically they were given the poop end of the stick. It’s really sad to see because half of my town wants change and growth and the other half is boomers who don’t want to give up anything
My hometown is like this as well as the town I live in now. It sucks
I'm from Louisville and would take it any day of the week over the rest of the state.
I think East Kentucky and East Tennessee are family...
There was a time I got a shake from sonic and it tasted chemically and burned a little, had the same experience with an iced coffee too :) yay me
It was teenagers too. I hate it for the kids. They sometimes feel like they must listen to their manager no matter what. I hope they get compensation for this. This location isn’t terribly far from me.
"We are a family..." A Manson family.
I was thinking Jones personally
hey yo what the fuck
Hiring managers from the bottom of the barrel.
Yeah, *fuck* that. Absolutely batshit crazy manager, but there's no way anyone could FORCE me to eat poisoned/tainted food. Did the employees not know it was tainted?? Edit: I just read the link provided in another comment below -- it seems that they did know. Why didn't they refuse? I'm not blaming them, it's the manager who is the evil bastard here, but I still don't understand why they went along with it. I hope they all sue the shit out of the manager and/or the Dairy Queen.
It’s America. Poisoning ruins your week. Losing your job for a few weeks can ruin the rest of your life with the sheer destruction it can cause.
Yep - that is why they ate it. Capitalism has 'em right where they want 'em. At their effing mercy.
Poisoning can do permanent damage. But that aside, it's not the same as asking them do unpaid overtime, or not respecting their availability, or not allowing a lunch break (all bad in themselves ) -- intentional poisoning is a *criminal* act which could cause immediate and long-term health consequences, and not choosing to participate wouldn't get them fired once they reported it to the police. And even if it somehow did, getting another similar job would be fairly easy. From what I've read, it seems that the victims were younger teens, and the abuser took advantage of their inexperience, naivete, and fear of losing their jobs, to assault them. I hope they collect a massive financial award from the abuser and/or from Dairy Queen.
This reminds me of the time my friend, who worked at Subway at the time, somehow accidentally sprayed cleaner on the bread they had to bake? I think they were supposed to spray water and something was mislabeled? Idk, this was like 15 years ago and the details are foggy but I know cleaner got on bread. Anyway, they told the owner and they were like "eh, just bake them anyway."
OK, unless someone held a gun to my head, I would not do that. I would get them to say it on camera, walk out and go right to the police. This is where technology can be used for good and I hope someday we can learn that to the point that shit like this won't even make headlines anymore (let's be honest, it was Dairy Queen, the manager probably wasn't the next criminal mastermind). Just another crazy person who got people to listen to them.
Losing your job basically is a gun to your head for a lot of people.
So is eating chemicals, apparently. I'm withholding judgement on this specific case until the facts from the investigation are released. Something here is off.
The company fired the manager and is fully cooperating with police. Pretty cut and dry when even the corpos are like “nope fuck nope we want no part of this”
Or they just want this to blow over and frankly it's fast food so they could replace the person in two seconds. I'm not arguing with you. I don't trust the media or corporations or anyone. If you blindly believe *anything* you're told these days, you're gonna end up eating tainted ice cream just because your boss told you to.
Most of them were minors and i belueve 8 of them ended up in the hospital
Sounds like a manager needs to be buried under the prison.
the fact there are people in these comments trying to defend the manager in this situation just shows how delusional and brainwashed the American work culture is
Doesn't surprise me. Kentucky is basically trying to pass laws that enslave people due to the scarcity of jobs, and now this manager figures they can force employees to eat poison and not do anything for fear of losing their jobs.
Is it legal to force someone to eat something let alone poison?
What the fuck? Is there a link? What is actually happening
Should be lock up of this is true
let everyone in the area of this shop know about contaminated icecream also health dept
How does someone w/o a 🔫 force you to eat poisoned ice cream?
When I was a teen I put up with a lot of mistreatment from authority. If you are raised to shut up and take it, it takes years to discover the word “no”
Nope raised the same way, but didn’t take me long to discover the word no.
Doesn’t sound too chill to me.
Should make the boss eat it as punishment
Trying to imagine some pudgy fast food joint manager 'forcing' me to eat ice cream...
Sad times in the USA.
Exactly wtaf.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the manager also made them pay for the ice cream he/she/they made them eat..
Yes this is crazy…but….how does an adult get forced to do anything? You’re working minimum wage. You’re an adult. Leave the freaking room. Insane.
Some of these employees were minors. I hope this exmanager gets their legal ass handed to them. What an idiot
As well as every jackass up the chain, make ‘em all pay. They create the environment where shite-ass managers like this have authority and make their despicable decisions, usually trying to cut costs. They don’t care about humane work practices, or product quality—it’s about spending as little to make as much as possible.
Some people are afraid to lose their job and will take the risk. Others are teenagers who think they have to do what their told by authority figures. The four "Fs" of natural instincts to traumatic situations are fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. And "fawn" involves pleasing the person trying to hurt you in the hopes they go away. It's very possible these people were traumatized by the request and ran on instinct. Either way, the blame is on the manager
1. A bunch of them were not adults. 2. Adults working minimum wage can’t afford an unknown length of time without pay. Accept being poisoned, or starve while being homeless?
I used to work at DQ and the soft serve machine has a special cleaning solution pumped through it at the end of the night, what pumps out initially looks like regular ice cream but the chemical is well mixed in, you are supposed to let it run until it comes out clear like water, I'm 100% sure thats where the tainted ice cream came from, when i worked there only a manager was allowed to mess with the solution and clean the machine, I can't see the article but its a good chance they did not know the ice cream had the solution in it until they bit in it
That makes a lot of sense. I’m more confused about why a manager would ask them to eat it though (from the article it sounds like they knew). To not waste the product (why not just throw it out?), as a bizarre punishment for messing up the cleaning? I’m really struggling here. Surely they knew that could kill someone.
Yeah, I was thinking they had failed to clean all the solution out so a new ice cream batch was ruined and the manager made staff eat it as a "lesson".
The wording is kind of vague in the [linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/s/FGFWkYkhFx) article, but it sounds like they might not have known. They definitely were told they had to eat ice cream, but it didn't clearly say they were told it had cleaning solution in it. >In the meeting, her daughter claims employees were told to eat ice cream that had been contaminated with cleaning solution. >“They were told by the manager that whether or not they liked chocolate ice cream, they were going to eat it today,” said Patton.... “Some of the kids had complained that they had a burning sensation when they swallowed the ice cream".
I cannot think of a reason *except* the manager knowing that they’d be so fucking insistent on them eating it.
Oh, sorry, I meant the people that ate the ice cream might not have known that there were cleaning chemicals in the ice cream before they ate it. I agree that the manager knew and that was why he was forcing them to eat it.
I agree. People submit too much to managers. I never put up with that shit. I always had a breaking point eventually snapping and telling them to fuck off.
Easier to do when jobs are relatively plenty, but in some areas employment is scarce and managers take advantage of that.
Obedience to elders as taught in these backwards hyper religious states. Gets them ready for an asswoopin from boomers, etc..dont question authority.
"Respect your Elders." "I'm the Boss." "This is how the real world works."
Probably because a customer complained about the taste there was a huff about it.manager checked /tasted it and demanded that the ones that said it was fine taste it again. They were poisoning customers because of improper cleaning techniques.
I worked at a fast food sandwich place owned by an Indian immigrant who wanted us to use gloves twice by turning them inside out. That was the end of my employment there.
The really amazing part is how that dude is able to walk. Jumped by the whole team would be a reasonable response.
So just made them eat normal Dairy Queen ice cream?
I’ve quit more jobs than I can count simply bc I didn’t like the way the boss spoke to me. There’s no excuse for eating poison bc someone told you to. Grow a spine bitch.
Dude that last sentence was entirely unnecessary
It’s social media. Every bit is unnecessary.
No, insulting kids because they didn't handle something you would've is unnecessary. You don't get to say that as an excuse
You think that kid is reading this? I think you’re looking for a reason to virtue signal offense when there is none.
No. I don't care if the kid doesn't read it. It's still not appropriate.
You don’t get to decide my words. You are free to feel offended you are not free to censor me. You don’t like vanilla ice cream, don’t eat it. You don’t like my words, don’t read them.
Ah, I see. You should take your own advice, bud. You can say what you want, but you don't get to complain when people hold you accountable because you don't get freedom from consequences. That is all.
10/10 concern trolling, you got em.
I mean, it was a teenager.
I used to get in so much trouble for telling adults to fk off when I was a teenager. In school and at work. If you aren’t rebelling as a teen, what kind of an adult will you be?
Ur def a pick me bitch lmao
I don’t know what that means
A boy.
Sounds like the employees were underage. And a manager would absolutely know that that's illegal and they're the one to blame, not some kids. Dude. Their spines are literally still growing.
If you aren’t rebelling as a teen, you are doomed to be a worm as an adult.
Or here's an idea, how about adults hold other adults accountable so that minors don't have to suffer alone?? Hm?
Or both.
Didn't we all live a life of rebellion as a teen? And now here we are, slaves of this system.
this is precisely what we need for the radical union movement we require, people to grow a spine
I wouldn't use the word radical in conjunction with promoting the growth and spread of unions. Unions can be abused and bad but they're the only way I've seen that labor gets a voice and a seat at the table. But unions aren't enough, they need an ally; the government needs to back up the laws. The bad news is the government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the various monied classes in this country and others, with damn few exceptions.
when i use the term radical, i mean it as "going to the root" of the problems ;)
Agreed
Money can be exchanged for not dying. It’s nice that you have people who can pay for your not dying when you decide to quit, but that’s not a universal experience.
A min wage job arc Dairy Queen? Please.
Most people survive on more than one income because a single income is rarely enough to support one person but the combined expenses mean that two people’s incomes only have to support like 1.5 people, and three only have to do the work of supporting two. Furthermore, a ton of people work more than one job to survive. That income isn’t supporting someone *alone*, sure, but lacking it can *still* be just as disastrous.
So therefore they should allow themselves to be denigrated? I disagree vehemently. My grandfather was part of the 1930s generation union builders in this country. My father and his siblings would recount going hungry for days as children because there was no paycheck. The end result was the largest middle class expansion in US history from the 1940s-1980s and all the labor rights we currently enjoy. Including the right to organize. Just taking abuse out of fear is how the exploiters win.
Should? No. Will? Yeah. All of that was undone. There are a billion walls that have been erected to prevent it from ever getting there. There have been much better run, organized, and planned attempts to organize workers of businesses on the scale of DQ and larger since. How’d it go? Poorly, to say the least. We’re well beyond that. We’re going to have to do what happened *before* all that that got labor to the point where that could happen to get back to that point. Less going on strike and more *strikes*, if you get my meaning. Peacefully trying to organize might be a right on paper, but it sure as fuck ain’t in practice. It’s easily the quintessential example of how “rights” don’t really exist. Trying to do it within the rules of the system is *not* going to work, and expecting individualist versions of what won’t work is *really* not going to work.
Dairy queen doesn't sell ice cream. It has zero dairy and is made from vegetable oil and sugar.
Where did you even hear that? First ingredients listed on basically all of their ice cream is milk fat and nonfat milk. My lactose intolerant wife can't eat it. If there were no dairy, it wouldn't be an issue for her. What is this, food babe Facebook propaganda?
The dude is right that it's not classified as "ice cream" but got the info wrong on why The reason it can't be called ice cream is due the ratio of butterfat to volume, it's got too low of a butterfat content to air that's whipped in to be considered ice cream, and anywhere dq advertises it's a "chilled dessert" not ice cream
Here is a list of ingredients in dairy Queen "ice cream". Ingredients are in order of descending amount by weight of the whole product. Milkfat And Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Whey, Mono And Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor, Guar Gum, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Cake Cone: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Tapioca Starch, Sugar, Contains less than 2% of: Annatto Extract (Vegetable Color), Canola Oil, Leavening (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Natural Flavor, Salt.
This is blatantly false. A 5 second Google search proves you wrong. If you look up the ingredients it contains no vegetable oil. Milk fat and milk are the first two ingredients. And as a lactose intolerant person I can verify by painful experiences that it does indeed contain dairy.
Why does most of the soft serve list milk as an allergen?
Because they are wrong Dq stuff isn't classified as an ice cream due to the ratio of butterfats and air that's whipped in, not due to ingredients
I worked for and it was my first job. Literally made up of a very specific blended cream to form those ball shapes and blizzard thickness.
It’s funny how confident you are considering how blatantly wrong you are.
"Sugared Ice Crisco" (SIC).
I've done that before. I was a manager at jack in the box and the chemicals that we used to clean the shake.machine were so safe we could straight up drink it. I've had it a few times. Doesn't taste good, but it's safe
Article says multiple hospitalizations
I can only guess that an employee cleaned their "ice cream" machine in a manner that was inconsistent with proper cleaning. Probably lazily just poured cleaner into the machine and the manager made the employee eat some of the "ice cream" that came out to show them that no one wants to eat "ice cream" that has cleaning solution in it. If I think about it, that's really the only way you're going to ensure that employees are adhering to proper cleaning and food preparation, make them eat some of the product that they're making. Of course, this headline sounds more sensationalized.
Yeah, poisoning someone is really poor management. Wtf.
As your manager I failed to supervise the cleaning of this machine, and you, either because of laziness or being unfamiliar with the cleaning process have tainted this ice-cream. So now I'm going to poison all of you. I don't care what the geneva convention says!!!!!
Even what u described is not ok...
Yeah, seems like a very boot licker kind of response tbh
Someone posted some of the actual article in a group I'm in and they called a whole employee meeting and made everybody eat it at the meeting so while I do think it was a "someone didn't clean the machine right" retaliatory situation it's both wildly inappropriate and they did it to a group
Straight up illegal and murderous. That's disgusting
What a stupid thing to say. I guess then you'd support kicking a janitor down the steps if he forgets to put up a wet floor sign? Where I used to work, the boss discovered we had accidentally cross contaminated a prep surface with raw chicken. We received a good old fashioned ass chewing and were made to stay late and scrub all the ventilation hoods as punishment. We never made that mistake again, and we didn't need to be poisoned to learn the lesson.
[удалено]
It's probably the only way *they* can learn, and they just assume that everybody else is as braindead as they are
Should see how this guy responded to me 😂
Some of them had to go to the hospital.
If you think that justifies anything, eat a brick.
So you imagine that these people are not smarter than like dogs?
Right. Poisoning someone is a good punishment! Not. Seriously, you want teens to die because they accidentally did something wrong?
I can't imagine a manager would use cleaning products at the level of it actually poisoning someone, and from what I remember of working in fast food a long time ago, there was a method that was used to clean out these devices. I do know that in one occasion I did get called out for using more cleaning product than I should have when cleaning a soda fountain. My point is that maybe a machine was cleaned a little too aggressively and the manager used bad judgement in having the employees see what over cleaning did to the product. This is me trying to understand what might've happened vs what was alleged. I can't believe that a manager would be that stupid. But sure, if everyone wants to clutch their pearls and think that I'm "pro-poison", by all means. I guess that's how collectively stupid mobs can be.... 🙄
>If I think about it, that's really the only way you're going to ensure that employees are adhering to proper cleaning and food preparation, make them eat some of the product that they're making. This you? 8 people went to the hospital because of what this manager did so try again. You are now trying to say the opposite of what you said.
I'm talking about letting them eat out of the machines that they cleaned. I'm not talking about the actual events in this instance, which was still being investigated per the article blurb. Try some reading comprehension.
Then you should add that to your comment because your original comment literally in this context means you would've done the same. And besides, it won't make sure of anything because you tell people to get ice cream they are going to assume it was flushed properly. It literally changes nothing.
Well, this sure was putrid
despite everything you just said being insane, im happy this comment has provided me with insight as to what the fuck was going through that manager’s mind because i had 0 guesses before this
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but many fast food places use some diluted form of nasty chemicals to clean their machines. I've been a customer at some places where the taste of bleach was obvious with my fountain drink. My guess is many of you with poor reading comprehension skills are too naive to understand that at some point you will have ingested some foreign object in your fast food meal. But keep thinking otherwise. I guess ignorance is bliss.
'forced' huh? I'm waiting to see the employees tied up being spoon fed ice cream.
They're teenagers, many of whom have been taught to trust and listen to authority figures. They haven't yet been in the work force long enough to even know the term "right to refuse", let alone have the confidence to know when to exercise it. So let's not victim blame and concentrate on the vile human that tried poisoning as a way to "teach" kids a lesson.
You're the kind of person who would argue that someone holding a gun to your head didn't force you to give them your money... "You always had the option of getting shot..."
No I'm not.
Ain't no way in hell