We can't get employees out of the office. Not for vacation, not for the flu.
A new poll finds that 51 percent of American workers in food service report coming into work sick occasionally. The survey of 1,200 food service employees was commissioned by Alchemy, an international food service consulting firm. It included employees in all domains of food production and delivery, from farm workers to restaurant and grocery store employees.
The survey showed that there are far more sick workers on the job than employers believe. When asked what percentage of employees forgo sick days, the average employer estimate was only 18 percent.
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Are employers simply oblivious to the pressures their workers feel to stay on the job?
"Managers and supervisors need to better communicate why it's OK to stay home when sick," Alchemy Systems CEO Jeff Eastman said in a press release.
The good news is that 87 percent of workers said they would be comfortable serving the food they prepare to their own families. It's not clear why the rest said they'd avoid their own food or whether that reason was due to sick food handlers.
Another highlight is that 93 percent of workers say they are confident enough to stop work when they identify a safety or product problem, a fact that Eastman said demonstrated that employees "felt responsible for the safety and wellbeing of their customers."
While nearly a quarter of employees said they had been injured on the job before, only half as many (12 percent) said they did not feel safe from injuries at work.
According to the survey, 66 percent of food workers report being satisfied with their jobs. Recent polls of the overall American workforce have shown far lower rates of job satisfaction, with one survey last year showing job satisfaction at only 47.7 percent.
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