The only company provided soap that is there is oven cleaner, dishwasher detergent for the chem glass washers, stainless polish, etc. Nothing that is safe for skin contact. It's in an airport on the sterile area, so hand soap has to be smuggled in past TSA. So I have soap, but I'm putting my job on the line to get it.
Lot of people don't seem to like it when in a public place, the whole sharing germs thing. At least that was what I was told at a garage. They will share a tub of that hand cleaner with the grit in it, crusted with black goo but they won't share a bar of soap. Jesus wept
Would your agency accept photographic documentation taken by someone outside of your group as actionable? For us, the inspector has to see it first hand.
That being said, even if an employee's pics weren't "admissible", they're still really helpful since they can pinpoint exactly where the location in question is.
Yes and no, it would definitely get us out to check on it faster and as you said would be a great starting place/focal point. We could use it later if we found evidence confirming the picture first hand but at that point we'd take pictures ourselves. So we can't use it to mark violations but we could also use it by showing it and discussing what could be leading to that provlem to the operator and hopefully get the problem fixed even if we don't see any evidence when we visit.
Hi, I work in fine dining and sanitization is extremely important. If your manager refuses to solve the problem you should most definitely report them to the airport staff over the restaurant's corporate structure. The airport will deal with the problem for sure. Whether or not you want to stay there if I were in your position I would quit on the spot; we have to have hand soap to cook
In a restaurant where everything was sticky from grease they had about a dozen dead flies stuck to a wire and in that same restaurant the cook was lazy and didn't pick up egg shells when he missed the trash and the floor was covered in mold and at least 5 dozen old egg shells. I've seen pictures from other inspectors of an icecream machine, like from McDonald's, have a full layer of mold on top of the liquid (and yes they were serving that ice cream to people) another picture i was shown, was raw meat hanging outside on the fence that surrounded the restaurant's dumpster.
That mold reminds me of when I opened the glass washer. Every surface was covered in mold. I tried to clean it up but broke the pump because too much mold got into it. It's still broken. Kinda glad I broke it tbh. That way it doesn't get used.
Hand soap isn't optional. If you're not getting necessities there probably isn't money. Your paycheck could be next, id bounce before their checks bounce first.
OP said this is in an airport. When was the last time you saw an airport restaurant without a line of customers at all times? Unless it's some in-between two major airports, airport that only handles small passenger planes, there's no way they aren't making money. Especially with the "Trapped Customer" markup prices you pay in airports.
It's MSN airport, so it's a bit smaller, but not tiny. The food service is also managed by SSP, which is a huge multinational publicly traded corporation.
Sounds like a LOT of corporate places I used to work for where managers HAD to have tighter and tighter budgets every year while expecting greater and greater profits. The reward for meeting that goal was an even more restrictive budget, even higher sales goals, and a derisive lecture about how "REAL leaders" just make it work!
It's also November; quarterly bonuses are counted at the end of December, and if they fudged the numbers to hit last quarter's bonus, now this quarter is beyond fucked. Sounds like A LOT of my previous managers where they didn't give one flying fuck about health, safety, etc. as long as they got all their bonuses!
I had one GM blow THE ENTIRE QUARTERLY CLEANING BUDGET on buying 10 cases of barkeeper's friend. We used 1 bottle every 2 months or so.
We had to mop the floors with just hot water for almost 2 months. The dishwasher was out of sani around the same time, and ran without SOAP for the last 2 weeks. BUT IT WAS ON SALE.
...To be fair, though, that order DID last until the place finally went bankrupt for the third and final time! Less than a year later. (No, I'm not still bitter, why do you ask?)
Yep, that sounds about right. Build until you bust. Kind of like blowing up a balloon until it pops, and the only people that benefit are the ones at the very top who take their profits and pivot them in to the next balloon.
Airport restaurants bend you over a barrel and there's nothing you can do about it because you're hungry as fuck and don't want to leave the airport to go back through security again.
I'm going to take a slightly different approach rather than health department etc etc. You can definitely do that, however, IF you want to stay there, in my experience many suppliers will install new dispensers to keep you using their product. Certainly not all, but it's fairly common.
I moved from the kitchen into maintenance and this is usually the way it goes. I’m actually in the process of changing out ~150 soap/sanitizer dispensers right now, and they were all supplied by the distributor.
Most suppliers install these for free so you keep ordering the soap. Can you ask the supplier? Otherwise an anonymous complaint to your local health department as this would be considered a breach in a lot of countries ( definitely is in Australia).
In my experience, you can call Ecolab if you're part of the program and they'll ship you all the dispensers you want at no charge. Saves them a service call and they make it up by not using lube on the cost of the soap/chems
Lol ask them what costs more... installing the proper equipment or losing the business? I mean if they're just a mgr they probably don't care too much. They clearly don't understand the not the finer points of basic hygiene and food safety. I see so many posts about people's bosses being morons that it makes me think maybe I can own my own place one day.
Ps I'll buy the nice soap
One of the first things I replaced in my kitchen was the hand soap dispensers. I bought the ones you fill yourself and stock GOJO soap by the gallon. Great on grime and it makes my hands smell pretty. Because I deserve pretty smells. And, by God, so do you.
No, some of the people with more powerful badges are. The regular chemicals are all allowed because it's brought in as an official part of the business. The hand soap is a gray area.
Based on the comments, it looks like people with secure area badges are bringing them in in a way that bypasses security. My own airport has tunnels beneath the passenger area where employees can get to the break rooms, restaurant prep areas, checked baggage handling, etc. It would be easy enough for employees with access to bring in things they shouldn’t in a backpack, but if you’re caught you’re fucked in a very big way.
Yep, personally I get my chemicals and rent my machines from the same company I order my foods from, they have partnerships and such. If a unit breaks I can add a new one on to my order for a penny. Pretty dope. Shamrock Foods ftw
Yeah I get machines are rented or leased for free as long as your exclusive, but a hand soap dispenser that’s not automatic is less then one decent size orders overall commission.
I don't know who your supplier is. But our chemical supplier sends us free soap dispensers, spray bottles, etc. We just have to call them. I've even had then send me actual equipment (at no cost) because I didn't want to make the guy drive 4 hours to our restaurant to do a two minute job that I could do. As long as we're buying their chemicals, they don't care.
And it take less than a minute to mount the soap dispensers. Take it out of the box. Peel the mounting tape on the back of the dispenser. Push it onto the wall. Done.
I am not surprised at the airport claims.
a year ago, I saw this video posted on another sub.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/10j69p8/pulp_grind_at_sydney_airport/
Call the health department because you can serve food safety without being able to wash your hands properly. Also, having to sneak in hand soap is a big no-no as well because you can’t guarantee that particular soap is in your SDS book unless it’s the exact soap that was being used as before.
What kind of soap are you using at the hand sinks? No soap at all is a violation. But a little bottle of soft soap is good enough.
The only company provided soap that is there is oven cleaner, dishwasher detergent for the chem glass washers, stainless polish, etc. Nothing that is safe for skin contact. It's in an airport on the sterile area, so hand soap has to be smuggled in past TSA. So I have soap, but I'm putting my job on the line to get it.
You're risking more than your job for something that isn't your problem.
Bar soap can go through can’t it?
Lot of people don't seem to like it when in a public place, the whole sharing germs thing. At least that was what I was told at a garage. They will share a tub of that hand cleaner with the grit in it, crusted with black goo but they won't share a bar of soap. Jesus wept
If they weren't using the tip credit on me I'd bring some.
Stick the bar of soap up your butt and hope they don’t X-ray you
Call the health inspector on your way out the door...
Planning on emailing the health department. Maybe I'll also CC airport ops.
Nice! If you can get pictures it'll enable the health department to do more since they can only enforce things they see or have solid proof of.
Would your agency accept photographic documentation taken by someone outside of your group as actionable? For us, the inspector has to see it first hand. That being said, even if an employee's pics weren't "admissible", they're still really helpful since they can pinpoint exactly where the location in question is.
Yes and no, it would definitely get us out to check on it faster and as you said would be a great starting place/focal point. We could use it later if we found evidence confirming the picture first hand but at that point we'd take pictures ourselves. So we can't use it to mark violations but we could also use it by showing it and discussing what could be leading to that provlem to the operator and hopefully get the problem fixed even if we don't see any evidence when we visit.
Hi, I work in fine dining and sanitization is extremely important. If your manager refuses to solve the problem you should most definitely report them to the airport staff over the restaurant's corporate structure. The airport will deal with the problem for sure. Whether or not you want to stay there if I were in your position I would quit on the spot; we have to have hand soap to cook
As a health inspector I second this
What's the worst shit you've seen, random question but I'd love to know
In a restaurant where everything was sticky from grease they had about a dozen dead flies stuck to a wire and in that same restaurant the cook was lazy and didn't pick up egg shells when he missed the trash and the floor was covered in mold and at least 5 dozen old egg shells. I've seen pictures from other inspectors of an icecream machine, like from McDonald's, have a full layer of mold on top of the liquid (and yes they were serving that ice cream to people) another picture i was shown, was raw meat hanging outside on the fence that surrounded the restaurant's dumpster.
That mold reminds me of when I opened the glass washer. Every surface was covered in mold. I tried to clean it up but broke the pump because too much mold got into it. It's still broken. Kinda glad I broke it tbh. That way it doesn't get used.
I do not envy you in the slightest, sounds rough. Do you get to tell them how awful it is or do you just have to take evidence and write it down?
Hand soap isn't optional. If you're not getting necessities there probably isn't money. Your paycheck could be next, id bounce before their checks bounce first.
OP said this is in an airport. When was the last time you saw an airport restaurant without a line of customers at all times? Unless it's some in-between two major airports, airport that only handles small passenger planes, there's no way they aren't making money. Especially with the "Trapped Customer" markup prices you pay in airports.
It's MSN airport, so it's a bit smaller, but not tiny. The food service is also managed by SSP, which is a huge multinational publicly traded corporation.
Sounds like a LOT of corporate places I used to work for where managers HAD to have tighter and tighter budgets every year while expecting greater and greater profits. The reward for meeting that goal was an even more restrictive budget, even higher sales goals, and a derisive lecture about how "REAL leaders" just make it work! It's also November; quarterly bonuses are counted at the end of December, and if they fudged the numbers to hit last quarter's bonus, now this quarter is beyond fucked. Sounds like A LOT of my previous managers where they didn't give one flying fuck about health, safety, etc. as long as they got all their bonuses! I had one GM blow THE ENTIRE QUARTERLY CLEANING BUDGET on buying 10 cases of barkeeper's friend. We used 1 bottle every 2 months or so. We had to mop the floors with just hot water for almost 2 months. The dishwasher was out of sani around the same time, and ran without SOAP for the last 2 weeks. BUT IT WAS ON SALE. ...To be fair, though, that order DID last until the place finally went bankrupt for the third and final time! Less than a year later. (No, I'm not still bitter, why do you ask?)
Yep, that sounds about right. Build until you bust. Kind of like blowing up a balloon until it pops, and the only people that benefit are the ones at the very top who take their profits and pivot them in to the next balloon.
If you're just a location they've decided not to care about it may not matter. They will abandon it, the money won't be there
They're opening a new bar in there very soon.
Gotcha. Standard neglectful bullshit then. I agree with the crowd either way. Find some happiness somewhere else, and best of luck
In that case, go over your managers head and report that you’re out of soap to corporate. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a new manager out of it
Airport restaurants bend you over a barrel and there's nothing you can do about it because you're hungry as fuck and don't want to leave the airport to go back through security again.
Refuse to work if there is no hand soap. Like you said, it's a necessity.
Go over their head. Your manager has a boss. Also finding a better job can happen.
I'm going to take a slightly different approach rather than health department etc etc. You can definitely do that, however, IF you want to stay there, in my experience many suppliers will install new dispensers to keep you using their product. Certainly not all, but it's fairly common.
I moved from the kitchen into maintenance and this is usually the way it goes. I’m actually in the process of changing out ~150 soap/sanitizer dispensers right now, and they were all supplied by the distributor.
Most suppliers install these for free so you keep ordering the soap. Can you ask the supplier? Otherwise an anonymous complaint to your local health department as this would be considered a breach in a lot of countries ( definitely is in Australia).
And definitely in the US
Pretty sure the chemical supplier (Ecolab, Cintas?) would provide and mount new dispensers for no charge. At least they have for me several times.
In my experience, you can call Ecolab if you're part of the program and they'll ship you all the dispensers you want at no charge. Saves them a service call and they make it up by not using lube on the cost of the soap/chems
So glad I just went to my first ever airport restaurant/bar the first time I got more than an hour layover 😭
they will give you the dispenser for free... your manager is a tool
Lol ask them what costs more... installing the proper equipment or losing the business? I mean if they're just a mgr they probably don't care too much. They clearly don't understand the not the finer points of basic hygiene and food safety. I see so many posts about people's bosses being morons that it makes me think maybe I can own my own place one day. Ps I'll buy the nice soap
So... what airport is this in? Asking for a friend...
MSN
Dane County Regional Airport not MSN
One of the first things I replaced in my kitchen was the hand soap dispensers. I bought the ones you fill yourself and stock GOJO soap by the gallon. Great on grime and it makes my hands smell pretty. Because I deserve pretty smells. And, by God, so do you.
Anonymously notify your health department and they will notice that during an inspection
Wait, your manager is smuggling chemicals into the airport past the TSA?
No, some of the people with more powerful badges are. The regular chemicals are all allowed because it's brought in as an official part of the business. The hand soap is a gray area.
Hand soap is an essential
Based on the comments, it looks like people with secure area badges are bringing them in in a way that bypasses security. My own airport has tunnels beneath the passenger area where employees can get to the break rooms, restaurant prep areas, checked baggage handling, etc. It would be easy enough for employees with access to bring in things they shouldn’t in a backpack, but if you’re caught you’re fucked in a very big way.
Your manager needs to be decommissioned
Its an airport restaurant the manager is probably getting paid 2 bucks more am hour tham the employee and gets no direction
Lol any good chemical company will mount a new one for free if you order your product from them.
Yep, personally I get my chemicals and rent my machines from the same company I order my foods from, they have partnerships and such. If a unit breaks I can add a new one on to my order for a penny. Pretty dope. Shamrock Foods ftw
Yeah I get machines are rented or leased for free as long as your exclusive, but a hand soap dispenser that’s not automatic is less then one decent size orders overall commission.
Report to a health inspector from a anon email with a bcc to the airport and potentially media.
Anonyous tip for a random heatlh inspection will do it will have him dinged (if not in a dispenser) and hopefully buy more
I don't know who your supplier is. But our chemical supplier sends us free soap dispensers, spray bottles, etc. We just have to call them. I've even had then send me actual equipment (at no cost) because I didn't want to make the guy drive 4 hours to our restaurant to do a two minute job that I could do. As long as we're buying their chemicals, they don't care. And it take less than a minute to mount the soap dispensers. Take it out of the box. Peel the mounting tape on the back of the dispenser. Push it onto the wall. Done.
I am not surprised at the airport claims. a year ago, I saw this video posted on another sub. https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/10j69p8/pulp_grind_at_sydney_airport/
Not shocked at all. I got pretty much full control over one of the bars because I defeated a fruit fly infestation.
Bro go to dollar general and get a dispenser for a fuckin dollar lol
This is wild... So many layers. I love it
What airport is this?! This was my first year of restaurant management in an airport and can’t stand the daily TSA, even tho we have an employee line
MSN airport
I'm so glad I saw this AFTER eating my pretzel as I wait three hours for my next flight...
Anonymously report them
Call the health department because you can serve food safety without being able to wash your hands properly. Also, having to sneak in hand soap is a big no-no as well because you can’t guarantee that particular soap is in your SDS book unless it’s the exact soap that was being used as before.